Patient engagement is the holy grail of many quality initiatives. If patients can be more fully engaged in their healthcare, comprehension increases, compliance goes up, informed consent is improved, anxiety is reduced, and outcomes improve.
Over the last ten years much research has bolstered anecdotal stories that patients improve when their experience with healthcare organizations is positive. When they feel, their overall well-being is tended to and their individual needs are valued, not only do they feel better, but their outcomes improve. Why might that be? “Innovative delivery systems are measuring activation to improve and individualize patient care and to strengthen the patient’s role in improving outcomes. They are improving care principally by tailoring coaching, educating, and implementing care protocols to patients at different levels of activation (engagement).”
Studies have concluded that patients with the knowledge, skill, and confidence to manage their health and healthcare are more likely to engage in more:
- Preventive behaviors
- Healthy behaviors
- Disease specific self-management behaviors
- Health information seeking behaviors
…and such behavior improves health outcomes.
One commonly used technique to increase patient engagement is through patient education and patient family outreach efforts. Both the patient and the family must understand why medical intervention is necessary, its scope, complications, and intended outcomes. Given the challenges of elderly patients and those with low levels of formal education, the family is often translating medical providers’ instructions for the patient and themselves.
Traditionally, patient education has been communicated via text-based media or through verbal explanations repeated by the same health care provider ad-infinitum. The efficacy of both techniques has been long questioned. In addition, with the advent of eHealth initiatives it is now possible for medical records, personal patient records, patient education, informed consent, and outcomes metrics to be posted on-line or integrated within an electronic medical records system and personal health records, yet verbal education cannot be integrated. In addition, electronic integration of education with patient records generally qualifies as “meaningful use” under the ACA definitions, which can enhance revenue generation.
The superiority of animation and other multi-media tools versus text-based learning
Recent studies affirm the superiority of animation over text, supporting the conclusion that engaging patients through animation and other multi-media education content improves patient understanding, retention, and engagement. Processing web-based health information can be difficult, especially for people with low health literacy. Presenting health information in an audiovisual format, such as animation, is expected to improve understanding among low health literate audiences.
Low health literate patients gain even more
Data shows that among people with low health literacy spoken messages improve recall and attitudes substantially compared to written messages. When combined with spoken text, they (animations) significantly improve recall. When exposed to spoken animations, people with low health literacy recall the same amount of information as their high health literate counterparts, whereas in all other conditions people with high health literacy recall more information compared to low health literate individuals. Researchers have found that spoken animation is the best way to communicate complex health information to people with low health literacy. As animations do not negatively influence high health literate audiences, it is concluded that information adapted to audiences with low health literacy suits people with high health literacy as well.
3-D Animation and multi-media patient education content improves outcomes
As reimbursement in the United States becomes tied to outcomes metrics, the push to improve patient outcomes through fuller patient engagement is omni-present. The connection between patient engagement and patient outcomes is well documented. Highly engaging patient education content is becoming integral to improving the overall patient experience. A plethora of data exists that confirms what many health care professionals know intuitively: that multi-media content, including 3-D animation education, is superior to text-based or static image education content. When culturally appropriate languages and images are added, the efficacy is multiplied. Retention increases, compliance increases, and better understanding by the patient and their family lead to better patient engagement and improved outcomes. The days of handing a patient a written brochure hoping they “get it” should be long gone.
About Visual Consult
The Visual Consult powered Visual Health Solutions is a comprehensive tool providing access to multi-media content integrated with MicroMD EMR. It also can be utilized as standalone solution designed to be used at the point of care to augment and enhance your existing educational content, providing physicians and their teams with an innovative platform offering medical illustrations and interactive graphics to share with patients for improved understanding of treatment and outcomes.
