Assessing a narrated white board animation as part of the consent process for intravenous fluorescein angiography: a randomized educational study.

Objective: To determine if a narrated white board animation (nWBA) video as part of the consent process for intravenous fluorescein angiography (IVFA) improves patient comprehension compared with a standard consent process.
Design: Prospective, randomized study.
Participants: Patients undergoing an initial IVFA investigation.
Methods: Three groups of 26 patients (N = 78) naïve to the IVFA procedure were included. Groups 1 and 2 consisted of patients undergoing IVFA for diagnostic purposes. Group 1 received the IVFA information via standard physician-patient interaction to obtain standard consent. Group 2 received IVFA information by watching an nWBA explaining the purpose, method, and risks of the diagnostic test to obtain informed consent. Group 3 comprised patients who were not scheduled to undergo IVFA. This group was exposed to both the standard and nWBA consent. All groups completed a 6-question knowledge quiz to assess retained information and a survey to reflect on the consent experience.
Results: Participants receiving information via standard physician-patient interaction to obtain informed consent had a lower mean knowledge score (4.38 out of 6; 73%) than participants receiving the information to obtain consent via nWBA (5.04 out of 6, 84%; P = 0.023). Of participants receiving both forms of information (group 3) to obtain informed consent, 73% preferred the nWBA to the standard consent process.
Conclusions: Participants receiving consent information for an IVFA diagnostic test via nWBA have better knowledge retention regarding the IVFA procedure and preferred this medium compared with participants receiving the standard physician-patient interaction for obtaining consent. Incorporation of multimedia into the informed consent process should be explored for other diagnostic tests.
(Copyright © 2016 Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)