When it comes to chats about surgery, iPads > doctors, patients say

As telecommunication with doctors—telemedicine—is an increasingly popular way to skip a trip to the doctor’s office, one group of patients may be clamoring for screen-time even when a doctor is right in front of them.

For 88 patients preparing for surgery, a short medical video viewed on an iPad was overwhelmingly preferred for explaining the procedure and ensuring informed consent over actual face-time with the doctor. The randomized, controlled trial, presented at the annual European Association of Urology Congress being held this week in Munich, suggests that technology may be an effective tool for doctors to better prepare patients for treatments.

“Often doctors work within busy practices and clinical environments with time limiting the quality of a consult and or verbal consent for a procedure,” lead researcher Matthew Winter of the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, Australia, said in a statement. “Through the use of portable video media, a doctor can present his/her own practice and procedural technique in an innovative, dynamic, and engaging manner.”

For the study, Winter and colleagues randomly split up 88 patients needing surgery for acute renal colic—abdominal pain often caused by kidney stones. Forty-five talked with a doctor about the procedure, while the remaining 43 watched a video with a cartoon animation about the procedure. Next, they all took a survey about their experiences and their understanding of the procedure. Then, the groups swapped, with those who spoke with the doctor watching the video and the video-watchers chatting with the doctor. The researchers then surveyed the participants again.

Overall, 80 percent of the patients preferred the screen-time over face-time with the doctor. For the group that talked with the doctor first, the video boosted understanding of the procedure by about 15 percent.

“This innovative approach to patient information, using a cartoon animation narrated by a doctor, allows each individual patient as much time as needed to understand the proposed procedure,” Fiona Burkhard, chairman of the EAU Guidelines panel for Urinary Incontinence, said in a statement. “It should not replace a face to face discussion with the physician, but will allow patients to meet the physician already informed and prepared, thus benefiting both the physician and the patient.”