Practice change bolsters patient knowledge about interventional radiology procedures

A simple practice change can bolster patient knowledge about interventional procedures, according to new research published Tuesday in Academic Radiology [1].

It’s been 12 years since the American Board of Medical Specialties recognized IR as a primary specialty. However, understanding about the profession remains low among both patients and primary care physicians, with the latter essential to fueling procedure volumes, experts noted.

To address this, radiologists at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center helped create educational videos covering six common procedure types, screening them as part of the informed-consent process. The Columbus-based institution recruited random patients to participate in their study, with 30 individuals viewing each video.

Conducting an anonymous seven-question survey afterward showed that the videos enhanced individuals’ understanding of interventional radiology, resulting in “high patient satisfaction.”

“Public awareness of IR is low, and increased familiarity with the field is critical to maximizing the beneficial impact of IR procedures on patients,” Mina S. Makary, MD, with the Department of Radiology at Wexner Medical Center, and co-authors concluded. “Videos are effective tools for immediately improving subjective patient understanding, and they may serve a vital role in filling the gaps in knowledge about IR procedures, especially in the context of limited [primary care physician] awareness.”

A board-certified interventional radiologist developed the videos, which run about 3-5 minutes long. Procedures covered included port placement and removal, tunneled central venous catheter insertion, transarterial chemoembolization and radioembolization, and ablation. Each video offered a procedure overview, indications, benefits, risks and alternatives, expectations for before and afterward, and follow-up care. They were standardized to include the same IR specialist speaking directly to the camera with cutaway animations, videos of the procedure, and bulleted slides describing details.

Makary and colleagues conducted their study at the tertiary academic medical center between January and December of 2023. A total of 180 participants undergoing one of the six procedures viewed the video corresponding to their treatment. They completed surveys before and after viewing the video, ranking their knowledge about the procedure on a five-point scale (5 signaling the highest level of understanding).

Watching the video led to an increase in patients’ understanding of the involved anatomy, with a score of 3.3 before versus 4.5 afterward. Understanding of the procedure’s benefits also improved (3.7 vs. 4.6), as did individuals’ grasp of the potential risks (3.3 vs. 4.5). Makary and colleagues also noted greater understanding of possible alternative treatments (2.7 vs. 3.4) and the procedure itself (3.4 vs. 4.7). Patients had a favorable experience with the videos, too, sharing an overall rating of 4.8.

“None of the procedural subgroups reported similar or reduced understanding in any criteria assessed on the survey,” the authors noted. “Furthermore, while interventionalists are confident in discussing benefits, risks, and alternative IR therapies during the informed consent process, less than half are confident in discussing alternative treatments outside of IR. Educational videos could provide significant utility to clinicians and patients by filling this gap during the informed consent process and preprocedural counseling.”