# Question prompt lists sent to patients before every major consultation

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-moon-question-prompt-lists/  
OnCo record `idea-moon-question-prompt-lists` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Before a results or treatment-planning appointment, patients receive a list of good questions to ask, tailored to their situation, and can tick the ones they want covered.

## Summary

Question prompt lists increase question-asking in randomised studies, particularly when clinicians endorse them. Portals can deliver tailored lists (stage, treatment intent, trial availability) automatically before scheduled visits, with the selected questions visible to the clinician. This is a cheap, scalable implementation of a proven tool that mostly fails through lack of delivery.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Automated tailored prompt lists increase the number of patient questions and the discussion of prognosis and trials, and reduce decisional conflict, without lengthening consultations by more than two minutes.
- Rationale: The barrier is delivery, not evidence; visit scheduling systems know exactly when the list is needed.
- Proposed test: Portal-level A/B test across an oncology network measuring questions asked (audio-coded sample), decisional conflict and consultation length.
- Maturity: being-tested-at-scale
- Actor: clinic

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency): Basch et al., Overall survival results of a trial assessing patient-reported outcomes for symptom monitoring during routine cancer treatment (JAMA 2017): https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.7156

## Connected records

- terms: [Randomised trial](https://onco.cc/terms/randomised-trial/)
- bottlenecks: [Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/)

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