Can Video Clips Improve Patient Comprehension at the Emergency Department?

IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo

Status: Completed

Conditions: Patient Safety; New Technologies in Clinical Medicine; Safe Hospital Discharge; Doctor Patient Communication; Patient Education and Health Literacy

Treatments: Other: Videoclips

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03734406

20180068344

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of this study is to assess the utility of two interventional videos, showed to patients discharged from the ED with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation or deep vein thrombosis. We have focused our attention on these two medical conditions because they share some important features: they are frequently seen in EDs; their main complication (stroke and pulmonary embolism) can cause significant morbidity and mortality; both conditions and their related complications are probably not very intuitive to comprehend for the general population. In fact, the understanding of these conditions implies the knowledge of a number of pathological processes, with which most people are unfamiliar.

The primary hypothesis is that patients enrolled in the study group will show a higher degree of comprehension of their medical condition and its related complications, as compared to the control group. Secondly, we will also analyze any possible effect of the videos on the knowledge of the therapy prescribed, return instructions and patients' satisfaction with the quality of communication in the ED.

Eventually, we will examine the association of some factors with the outcomes (age, sex, level of education, atrial fibrillation vs. deep vein thrombosis group).

Enrollment: 144 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

• Age >18
• Being diagnosed with one of the two medical condition under study: patients with first-time diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis; patients with first-time diagnosis of atrial fibrillation; patients with second episode in life of atrial fibrillation who have never been prescribed take-home medications for its cure or prevention of recurrence (anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs including beta-blockers)
• Being discharged home directly from the Emergency Department/Emergency Unit
• Capacity of the patient to understand the explanations and instructions provided by the doctor (this includes excellent command of the Italian language)
• Having provided a valid phone number
• Having signed the informed consent

In case of patients lacking capacity, and in all cases of patients who will be judged by the recruiting doctor as incapable to safely receive the discharge instructions, the caregiver will be enrolled to the study with identical modalities.

In the context of a pragmatic trial, we did not set exclusion criteria in terms of education level and comorbidities of the enrolled patients.

Exclusion criteria:

• Previous diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis
• Two or more previous episodes of atrial fibrillation; or one previous episode of atrial fibrillation for which the patient has been prescribed one of the following take-home medications: anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs including beta-blockers.
• Being hospitalized

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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144 participants in 2 patient groups

Video group

Experimental group

Description:

All subjects enrolled in the study group will be showed during the discharge process the video related to patient's condition (DVT vs AF), using it as a graphic support to doctor's verbal explanation of the diagnosed pathology and its possible complications. For the purposes of the study we have selected two 3D videoclips, available on various internet sites and not covered by any copyright restrictions; these have been modified and shortened to make them suitable to use in our study setting. The images contained show the pathophysiological process underlying the two diseases under study, namely deep vein thrombosis and atrial fibrillation. The SIs will show the videos to patients on the institutional computer or, alternatively, on their personal smartphone / tablet. The videos were purposely left without audio content.

Treatment:

Other: Videoclips

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients of the control group will receive discharge explanations without the aid of any video. The communication strategy in these cases won't be standardized, in order to leave the treating doctors free to express themselves in the way they are used to in their clinical practice, which is based solely on doctor's verbal and non-verbal communication skills.