Tablet Use Helps Patients Better Understand Surgery And Recovery

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Patients have easier recoveries if their doctors use tablet based presentations to explain surgical procedures and recovery expectations.

Patients who comprehend what is going to happen before, during, and after their medical procedures have easier recoveries — and using mobile health tools like tablets might be the key to helping more patients feel confident in their procedures.

Fierce Health IT reports researchers have found the use of tablets as educational tools before procedures has significantly helped them understand and recover.

“Often, patients undergo procedures without real informed consent being achieved due to technical language, jargon and time pressure, with up to half of patients finding it difficult to understand what their doctor tells them,” explained an announcement from a group of Australian doctors and researchers. They found that patients’ understanding of procedures was much better after using the iPad than after a face-to-face consultation.

For the study, 88 patients set to undergo a procedure for acute renal colic; 45 discussed the procedure, as normal, while 43 viewed a video presentation narrated by a doctor on a tablet. They found the tablet-based video boosted patients' understanding by 15.5 percent. Nearly 81 percent of patients preferred the video over face-to-face consultations.

“Patients often find it difficult to understand the medical language used by doctors during face-to-face standard verbal communication, and they often feel intimidated by the interaction,” said lead researcher, Matthew Winter. “Often doctors work within busy practices and clinical environments with time limiting the quality of a consult and or verbal consent for a procedure. Patients often find it difficult to comprehend their planned procedure. We have found patient’s knowledge is greatly improved through the use of portable video media and is their overall preferred method of information delivery compared with standard verbal communication.”