Recall and Understanding of Discharge Information in Observation Ward Patients: An Explorative Observational Study

Effective communication is essential for understanding and recall of hospital discharge information. This study aimed to explore discharge information, patient recall and patient involvement in discharge encounters. We conducted an explorative observational study at a secondary care level, observational ward. Patients discharged to their home were asked to participate. 34 patients were assessed for eligibility, of which 13 were included in the analysis. Multiple sources of data were collected: videotapes of discharge encounters, questionnaires to patients and physicians, and semi-structured interviews with patients 2 weeks after discharge. All patients were satisfied with the information received. Five of the eight patients discharged with more than one change in medication had only partial or no recall of these changes. In seven of the 13 encounters the patients and physicians did not agree on the main message most important information item. The patients were to a small extent involved in decision-making. Our findings highlight the gaps in the information exchange at discharge encounters and the resulting poor information recall among patients. Patients do not seem aware of these gaps. Greater provider awareness of patient involvement in the encounter and inclusion of the patient’s perspective may improve communication, and consequently understanding and recall.

Review of Wearable Devices and Data Collection Considerations for Connected Health

Wearable sensor technology has gradually extended its usability into a wide range of well-known applications. Wearable sensors can typically assess and quantify the wearer’s physiology and are commonly employed for human activity detection and quantified self-assessment. Wearable sensors are increasingly utilised to monitor patient health, rapidly assist with disease diagnosis, and help predict and often improve patient outcomes. Clinicians use various self-report questionnaires and well-known tests to report patient symptoms and assess their functional ability. These assessments are time consuming and costly and depend on subjective patient recall. Moreover, measurements may not accurately demonstrate the patient’s functional ability whilst at home. Wearable sensors can be used to detect and quantify specific movements in different applications. The volume of data collected by wearable sensors during long-term assessment of ambulatory movement can become immense in tuple size. This paper discusses current techniques used to track and record various human body movements, as well as techniques used to measure activity and sleep from long-term data collected by wearable technology devices.

CHECK UP: A student-designed model for creating innovative patient education materials that your patients will actually use

Objective As appointments become more rushed, it is crucial that primary care clinicians consider new and effective ways to provide preventive health education to patients. Currently, patient education is often handouts printed from the electronic medical record system; however, these pieces of paper often do not have the desired impact. Well-established advertising methods reveal that repeated exposure is key in recall and swaying consumer decisions. The Creating Health Education for Constructive Knowledge in Underserved Populations (CHECK UP) Program is a medical student-led program that aims to improve patient recall of health information, health promoting behaviors and health outcomes by applying modified advertising concepts to the delivery of health education. Methods Patients were given large magnets containing health education information. These patients were interviewed 3–4 months afterwards to assess use and effectiveness of magnets as a means to provide health education. Results In total, 25 of the 28 patients given CHECK UP magnets agreed to participate. The majority of participants (23/25) kept the magnets and reported that they, as well as others in their households, see the magnets daily. All 23 participants recalled at least 1 health tip from 1 of the magnets. Conclusions The use of non-traditional materials for patient education allowed for repeated exposure and recall of health information. Consideration for modified use of evidence-based advertising and marketing strategies for the delivery of patient education may be an easy and effective way to provide information to patients outside of the clinical setting and promote health behavioral changes.

Supporting communication of visit information to informal caregivers: A systematic review

Importance When caregivers cannot attend the clinic visit for the person they provide care for, patients are the predominant source of clinic visit information; however, poor patient recall inhibits the quality of information shared, resulting in poor caregiver preparedness and contributing to caregiver morbidity. Technological solutions exist to sharing clinic visit information, but their effectiveness is unclear. Objectives To assess if and how technology is being used to connect informal caregivers to patient clinic visit information when they cannot otherwise attend, and its impact on caregiver and patient outcomes. Evidence review MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus, and CINAHL were searched through 5/3/2020 with no language restrictions or limits. ClinicalTrials.gov and other reference lists were included in the search. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized trials that involved using a technological medium e.g., video or the electronic health record, to communicate visit information to a non-attending caregiver were included. Data were collected and screened using a standardized data collection form. Cochrane’s Risk of Bias 2.0 and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale were used for RCTs and nonrandomized trials, respectively. All data were abstracted by two independent reviewers, with disagreements resolved by a third reviewer. Findings Of 2115 studies identified in the search, four met criteria for inclusion. Two studies were randomized controlled trials and two were nonrandomized trials. All four studies found positive effects of their intervention on caregiver outcomes of interest, and three out of four studies found statistically significant improvements in key outcomes for caregivers receiving visit information. Improved outcomes included caregiver happiness, caregiver activation, caregiver preparedness, and caregiver confidence in managing patient health. Conclusions and relevance Our review suggests that using technology to give a caregiver access to clinical visit information could be beneficial to various caregiver outcomes. There is an urgent need to address the lack of research in this area.

O-215 How common is add-on use and how do patients decide whether to use them? A national survey of IVF patients

Study question How common is IVF add-on use in Australia, and what drives the use? Summary answer Most women (82%) had used one or more IVF add-ons and more than half (54%) first learned about the add-ons from their fertility specialist. What is known already IVF add-ons are procedures, techniques or medicines which may be considered nonessential to IVF, usually used in attempts to improve the probability of conception and live birth. Despite widespread concern about unproven IVF add-ons, information about the prevalence of their use is limited because these data are not available in national registries or datasets. Study design, size, duration Women who had undergone IVF in Australia since 2017 were recruited via social media. Women were excluded if they were gestational surrogates, had used a surrogate, or underwent IVF for oocyte donation or elective oocyte cryopreservation only. Eligible women completed an online survey which was open from 21st June to 14th July 2020. Participants/materials, setting, methods Survey questions included demographics, IVF and medical history, and questions specifically about IVF add-ons such as: the type of add-ons used, information sources consulted, and where participants first heard about add-ons. Women also responded to questions about the importance of scientific evidence regarding safety and effectiveness, factors considered in decision-making around add-on use and the presence of any decision regret. Main results and the role of chance A total of 1,590 responses were analyzed after excluding 287 ineligible responses. Participants were generally representative of women who undergo IVF in Australia in terms of age, indication for IVF, and use of ICSI for fertilisation. Most women had used at least one add-on (82%), and these were usually associated with an additional fee (72%). It was most common to first learn about IVF add-ons from the fertility specialist (54%), and most women reported that they and their specialist contributed equally to the decision to use add-ons. Women viewed scientific evidence for safety and effectiveness as very important on a scale from 0-100, an importance score over 90 was selected by more than half of the participants. Additionally, many (49%) assumed that add-ons were risk-free. Most women experienced regret at the decision to use IVF add-ons (66%), and this regret was greatest among women who experienced IVF failure when using add-ons (83%) and those who believed that the specialist drove the decision to use the add-ons (75%). Limitations, reasons for caution This was a retrospective survey of IVF patients, therefore it may suffer from bias due to patient recall. It does not consider the perspective of the IVF clinic or fertility specialist. Certain questions may be more prone to biased responses, such as those regarding who contributed to decision making. Wider implications of the findings The high prevalence of add-on use is likely generalizable to other settings where IVF treatment is largely private. Although women viewed scientific evidence as very important, most had used unproven IVF add-ons. This might suggest that women were not aware of the lack of robust evidence to support their use. Trial registration number Not applicable

540 Point of Care Testing for Tetanus Immunity: A Systematic Review

Introduction All patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs) with traumatic injuries require tetanus immunity assessments. Inaccurate tetanus vaccination history based on patient recall incurs unnecessary costs on the NHS. Point-of-care immunochromatographic tests (Tetanus Quick Sticks [TQS]) quickly identify tetanus immunity status. We aim to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and cost-efficacy of TQS to assess their relevance in emergency care. Method The systematic review followed PRISMA guidelines. A retrospective search of MEDLINE, Embase, Global Health, HMIC and The Cochrane Library was conducted. Studies were eligible if sensitivity, specificity, or cost-efficacy of TQS were reported. At least two authors independently analysed the data from each study. Results 12 studies were suitable for inclusion (n = 1,662,865 participants): one retrospective and 11 prospective observational cohort studies. Eight studies assessed diagnostic accuracy with the median sensitivity at 86% (55-100) and the median specificity at 97.5% (1-100). All six studies investigating cost-efficacy reported greater savings when using TQS instead of using vaccination history, due to a decrease in unnecessary tetanus vaccine and immunoglobulin administration. Conclusions TQS is a safe diagnostic tool, especially when used by trained operators. TQS widely reduces costs in comparison to traditional vaccination history. We recommend the use of TQS in Emergency Departments throughout the NHS.

Clinical Characteristics of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration without Typical Drusen

Purpose. To evaluate the clinical characteristics of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) patients without typical drusen. Methods. We retrospectively studied 165 eyes in 165 patients with treatment-naïve nAMD, including typical AMD and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). According to the fellow eye condition, the patients were divided into nAMD with and without typical drusen groups. Eyes with soft drusen or subretinal drusenoid deposits were classified into the nAMD with the typical drusen group. Smoking status and diagnoses of hypertension and diabetes were identified from hospital records and patient recall. We assessed best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), central retinal thickness (CRT) at the fovea, subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), and the number of injections received. Results. The nAMD without typical drusen group was significantly younger (77.9 ± 7.6 vs. 71.8 ± 8.3, P < 0.001 ) and had thicker SFCT at baseline (207.9 ± 99.5 vs. 260.1 ± 113.2 μm, P = 0.007 ) and a higher proportion of PCV (30.6 vs. 63.1%, P < 0.001 ). The proportion of ever-smokers was significantly higher in the nAMD without typical drusen group (54.8 vs. 70.9%, P = 0.036 ). There were no statistically significant differences in the proportion of patients with hypertension or diabetes; BCVA, CRT, or SFCT changes; or the number of injections between the nAMD with and without typical drusen groups. Conclusion. The clinical features of patients in the nAMD without typical drusen group were almost identical to those of pachychoroid-driven choroidal neovascularization (CNV) patients. The nAMD without typical drusen group had a significantly higher proportion of ever-smokers than the nAMD with typical drusen group. Smoking could be a risk factor for the development of pachychoroid-driven CNV.

P41 Development of a Montgomery compliant consent discussion aide memoire leading to the establishment of a 'remote consent clinic'

In response to the Montgomery ruling and increasing costs due to improper consenting, specialties such as spinal surgery have implemented consent clinics performed between the conventional initial consultation and day of surgery. However, as this new process can be cost and labour intensive, providing the clinic remotely has been proposed as a way of streamlining this service. This review aims to develop a Montgomery-compliant checklist that provides practical considerations on conducting a remote consent clinic, with scope to integrate this initially into orthopaedic practice. Two literature searches were conducted with the first establishing previous study in remote consent clinics and the second determining the feasibility and financial viability of providing a remote clinic against a face-to-face clinic. The initial analysis revealed remote consent clinics as a relatively novel area of research. However, both literature searches suggested improvements in both patient recall and understanding in remote consenting, further enhanced by additional resources. Moreover, remote clinics are more efficient and cost-effective while still maintaining high patient satisfaction; outcomes are further improved by delegating this service to alternative staff members. Patients also benefit from the complete erasure of travel times and associated costs. Additionally, in the era of COVID-19, it limits patient exposure allowing hospitals to provide safer services. Consent clinics, when performed remotely, are a cost-effective and efficient tool to minimise negligence claims while maximising patient satisfaction. In line with the digitisation of healthcare, it also allows for a COVID-appropriate service. Nevertheless, to ease the transition, a practical checklist has been developed.