Introduction Patient understanding of angiography and angioplasty is often incomplete at the time of consent. Language barriers and time constraints are significant obstacles. New approaches are needed to support communication and decision making. To this end, we developed a multi-language animation describing the benefits, risks and alternatives of the procedures (please click to view www.explainmyprocedure.com). We introduced the animation into practice in a pilot quality improvement project and assessed patients’ understanding of the procedure before and after its introduction.

Methods Forty consecutive patients were interviewed, twenty who had watched the animation prior to their procedure and twenty who had not, to determine whether they felt completely informed, understood the benefits, the risks and the alternative treatments. Responses to these four questions were analysed categorically and ratios calculated for the animation group compared with the non-animation group (with 95% confidence intervals). STATA V10 was used for all analyses.

Results Table 1 shows that patients in the animation group (mean age 64 years) and in the no animation group (mean age 68 years) were well matched. Figure 1 shows that understanding of the procedure was greater in the animation group across all four questions. In the animation group there was a statistically significant 3-fold greater understanding of the risks of the procedure (ratio 3.0 (95% CI 1.2 to 7.7), p=0.023) and a 2.5-fold increase in the proportion of patients who felt completely informed before giving consent (2.5 (1.2 to 5.1), p=0.01). There were directional, but non-significant, increases in understanding of the benefits and alternatives of the procedure; ratios 1.6 (0.8 to 3.2), p=0.34 and 2.0 (0.6 to 6.9), p=0.45, respectively.

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Abstract 51 Figure 1

Patient understanding of the procedure in the animation and no animation groups

Conclusion Viewing animations of angiography and angioplasty before consent was associated with a greater understanding of the procedures and the associated risks. Multi-language narration has the potential to further improve communication surrounding consent. The approach is not limited to cardiology and has the potential to be applied to all specialties in medicine.

Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest