Computer-based Tutorial and Automated Speech Recognition for Intravitreal Drug Injections

Age-related Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Macular Edema, Retinal Vein Occlusion

Informed Consent Process

Evaluation if a computer-based tutorial (MacInfo tool) improves the patients' knowledge about intravitreal drug injections, associated risks, and the underlying diseases of treatment-naive patients.

Informing the patient an obtaining informed consent is one of the major duties physicians have to perform before beginning a medical treatment. However, patients often experience the informed consent taking as not satisfying. In the past, several approaches were used to try to improve the informed consent taking, such as printed information sheets and multimedia tools. A novel concept introduced several years ago is the utilization of a multimedia tool including a so-called traffic light system. At our clinic, a computer-based tutorial for informed consent of patients undergoing cataract surgery (CatInfo tool) was developed and tested. The patients see and hear a presentation covering the topics of cataract disease, the surgery, and associated risks and complications. After each chapter a graphic representation of a traffic light is shown on the screen. At this page the patient has three choices: if the patient understood everything and wish to continue, the green bar has to be clicked; if there are further questions, the patient clicks the yellow bar; or if the patient wishes to repeat the chapter due to any reason, the patient clicks the red bar. In previous studies, it was shown that patients who used the CatInfo tool had better knowledge about cataract surgery compared to the ones that saw a placebo video. Furthermore, the overall satisfaction of patients with the CatInfo tool was high (median 9.1 of 10 measured with a visual analogue scale). Since many cataract patients benefited from using the CatInfo tool, the idea arose to create and test a similar multimedia information tool for patients receiving a drug injection into the vitreous of the eye for treatment of retinal diseases (e.g. patients suffering from neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, or retinal venous occlusive disease). Therefore, the MacInfo tool was developed as a multidisciplinary project including patients, graphic designers, and ophthalmologists. Furthermore, it would be helpful for the physician to have a legal valid and written documentation of the informed consent process, serving as proof that the patient was informed correctly about all necessary topics concerning the medical treatment, expected benefits, risks, complications, etc. A novel and technology-driven approach may be the use of Automated Speech Recognition (ASR). ASR records the informed consent discussion, followed by an algorithmic analysis of the conversation, and a subsequent translation of the interaction into a legally valid document. The aim of this study is to evaluate if the MacInfo tool improves the patients' knowledge about intravitreal drug injections, associated risks and the underlying diseases of treatment-naive patients and if ASR is a suitable technology for improving informed consent process documentation in daily routine.

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