By NZ Gastro Office | Posted: Monday August 8, 2022
Dear Colleague,
Our research team has developed a novel non-invasive body surface gastric mapping (BSGM) device to measure the electrical activity of the stomach using a high-density array of electrodes on the body surface. We hope that this tool will become a valuable diagnostic aid to hasten diagnosis of motility disorders that underlie the symptoms clustered within functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs).
Due to the high psychological comorbidity in patients with FGIDs, we are hoping to combine the physiological outputs from the BSGM test with psychological outputs from psychometric questionnaires to further aid clinicians in the diagnosis and management of these patients. This could lead to the development of targeted psychological interventions for a subset of patients. However, it is first important to validate a method accepted by both patients and clinicians to identify those who would most benefit from psychological support.
You are invited to take part in a study investigating the opinions of patients and clinicians on the utilisation of psychological information in the diagnosis and management of patients with FGIDs. This will involve completing an online semi-structured interview with one of our research team. We anticipate that this should take a maximum of 30 minutes. We are also undertaking similar interviews with patients to ensure the patient perspective is incorporated. To participate you must be 18 years or older, be able to speak, read, and write fluently in English, and be a clinician who sees and/or treats patients with FGIDs.
You will receive a koha (gift) as a thanks for your time.
Attached to this email is the Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form, which provides more information about the study.
If you would like more information, please email Mikaela Law at m.law@auckland.ac.nz or you can register your interest using this link:
https://auckland.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6nZ4zYLLsHTC2jA
Thank you for considering our request. Please do not hesitate to contact Mikaela if you require further information.
This study has been approved by the Auckland Health Research Ethics Committee on 27/06/2022 for three years. Reference number AH24466.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Greg O’Grady