Self-referral letters: When physicians and patients communicate in writing

This project explores self-referral letters. Although written by the patients themselves, self-referrals have the same objective as a doctor’s referral: to refer someone to specialist care. While patients’ referral letters are equal to those written by physicians, the patients writing typically lack medical training or knowledge of medical genre conventions. At the same time, the self-referral letter is often tied to ideas of increased democratization and participation in healthcare. Thus, there is a risk that two different perspectives on illness – the physician's professional view and the patient's subjective experience – may collide. The purpose of this project is to examine how patients communicate with physicians in writing, and how physicians evaluate these texts.