Miller Caroline A, Locke Rachel A, Holck Hailey W, Evans Holt J, Bhamber Tiag P, Sinks Alexander L, McGrath Lila G, Boselli Danielle M, Clark Peter E, Roy Ornob P
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Urology, Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
Indian J Urol. 2024 Jan-Mar;40(1):25-30. doi: 10.4103/iju.iju_191_23. Epub 2023 Dec 29.
Patient education is an essential element of the treatment pathway. Augmented reality (AR), with disease simulations and three-dimensional visuals, offers a developing approach to patient education. We aim to determine whether this tool can increase patient understanding of their disease and post-visit satisfaction in comparison to current standard of care (SOC) educational practices in a randomized control study.
Our single-site study consisted of 100 patients with initial diagnoses of kidney masses or stones randomly enrolled in the AR or SOC arm. In the AR arm, a physician used AR software on a tablet to educate the patient. SOC patients were educated through traditional discussion, imaging, and hand-drawn illustrations. Participants completed pre- and post-physician encounter surveys adapted from the Press Ganey patient questionnaire to assess understanding and satisfaction. Their responses were evaluated in the Readability Studio and analyzed to quantify rates of improvement in self-reported understanding and satisfaction scores.
There was no significant difference in participant education level ( = 0.828) or visit length (27.6 vs. 25.0 min, = 0.065) between cohorts. Our data indicate that the rate of change in pre- to post-visit self-reported understanding was similar in each arm ( ≥ 0.106 for all responses). The AR arm, however, had significantly higher patient satisfaction scores concerning the educational effectiveness and understanding of images used during the consultation ( < 0.05).
While AR did not significantly increase self-reported patient understanding of their disease compared to SOC, this study suggests AR as a potential avenue to increase patient satisfaction with educational tools used during consultations.
患者教育是治疗过程中的一个重要元素。增强现实（AR）技术通过疾病模拟和三维视觉效果，为患者教育提供了一种不断发展的方法。我们旨在通过一项随机对照研究，确定与当前标准护理（SOC）教育实践相比，这种工具是否能提高患者对自身疾病的理解以及就诊后的满意度。
我们的单中心研究包括100例初诊为肾肿块或结石的患者，他们被随机纳入AR组或SOC组。在AR组中，医生使用平板电脑上的AR软件对患者进行教育。SOC组的患者则通过传统的讨论、影像学检查和手绘插图进行教育。参与者完成了改编自Press Ganey患者问卷的医生问诊前后调查，以评估理解程度和满意度。他们的回答在可读性工作室进行评估，并进行分析以量化自我报告的理解和满意度得分的改善率。
两组参与者的教育水平（P = 0.828）或就诊时长（27.6分钟对25.0分钟，P = 0.065）没有显著差异。我们的数据表明，每组就诊前后自我报告理解程度的变化率相似（所有回答的P≥0.106）。然而，AR组在咨询期间对教育效果和所使用图像的理解方面，患者满意度得分显著更高（P<0.05）。
虽然与SOC相比，AR并没有显著提高患者自我报告对自身疾病的理解，但这项研究表明AR是提高患者对咨询期间使用的教育工具满意度的一个潜在途径。
