Can Video Clips Improve Patient Comprehension at the Emergency Department?
Doctor Patient Communication, Patient Safety, New Technologies in Clinical Medicine

About this trial
This is an interventional other trial for Doctor Patient Communication
Eligibility Criteria
- Age >18
- Being diagnosed with one of the two medical condition under study: patients with first-time diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis; patients with first-time diagnosis of atrial fibrillation; patients with second episode in life of atrial fibrillation who have never been prescribed take-home medications for its cure or prevention of recurrence (anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs including beta-blockers)
- Being discharged home directly from the Emergency Department/Emergency Unit
- Capacity of the patient to understand the explanations and instructions provided by the doctor (this includes excellent command of the Italian language)
- Having provided a valid phone number
- Having signed the informed consent
In case of patients lacking capacity, and in all cases of patients who will be judged by the recruiting doctor as incapable to safely receive the discharge instructions, the caregiver will be enrolled to the study with identical modalities.
In the context of a pragmatic trial, we did not set exclusion criteria in terms of education level and comorbidities of the enrolled patients.
Exclusion criteria:
- Previous diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis
- Two or more previous episodes of atrial fibrillation; or one previous episode of atrial fibrillation for which the patient has been prescribed one of the following take-home medications: anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs including beta-blockers.
- Being hospitalized
Sites / Locations
- Emergency Department, IRCCS San Matteo University Hospital
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
No Intervention
Video group
Control group
All subjects enrolled in the study group will be showed during the discharge process the video related to patient's condition (DVT vs AF), using it as a graphic support to doctor's verbal explanation of the diagnosed pathology and its possible complications. For the purposes of the study we have selected two 3D videoclips, available on various internet sites and not covered by any copyright restrictions; these have been modified and shortened to make them suitable to use in our study setting. The images contained show the pathophysiological process underlying the two diseases under study, namely deep vein thrombosis and atrial fibrillation. The SIs will show the videos to patients on the institutional computer or, alternatively, on their personal smartphone / tablet. The videos were purposely left without audio content.
Patients of the control group will receive discharge explanations without the aid of any video. The communication strategy in these cases won't be standardized, in order to leave the treating doctors free to express themselves in the way they are used to in their clinical practice, which is based solely on doctor's verbal and non-verbal communication skills.