between members of the healthcare community, can be isolating for patients.


“When we go through medical training, we learn not only concepts, we learn a language,” said Dr. Newton. “This way of speaking allows us to frame our brains, but it also allows us to communicate in shorthand. And this jargon is one that is necessary. It’s one that facilitates efficient communication and handoffs. But it’s one that is extremely alienating for anybody from the outside.”


This disconnect is particularly challenging when it comes to IR treatments, Dr. Keller said, since the public has less of a baseline familiarity with IR and image-guided therapies.


who is a member of The Interventional Initiative and the current director of research at the Applied Ethics in IR Initiative. However, this is not always the case.


“The person best positioned to obtain informed consent would be the person who’s most familiar with the procedure or is performing it,” she said. “But for a number of reasons, such as in a large, busy medical center or training center, different people might be obtaining consent and talking with the patient.” In an urgent or emergent situation, consent may have to be obtained quickly just outside or even in the procedure area instead of a more comfortable setting, like in a clinic or consultation room.


Providers often rely on translators to communicate with patients—but they are not always readily available, so clinicians may have to rely on a family member or their own knowledge of the language. The consenting process can also take longer when using a translator, and some messages may inadvertently be forgotten or misunderstood, Ms. Rockwell said.


There is also variability in individuals’ approaches to obtaining informed consent.


34 IRQ | WINTER 2023


“We’re pretty good at describing the procedure itself and what its intent is, but we all share information in different ways and might wind up quoting different data about outcomes, risks and alternative options,” Ms. Rockwell said.


Plus, the ways in which we report data are not always the best for conveying the information in a clear and digestible manner.


“A percentage is not always the easiest thing to understand,” she said. “But if you show a patient a figure or a graphic—for example, if you show them there’s 100 people, and highlight how many people out of 100 experience a particular adverse effect—they may better understand what you’re trying to communicate.”


Many clinicians may create their own patient resources, but it’s difficult to create high-quality brochures that are accessible to all patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average national health literacy level is at the 6th–8th grade level, but Dr. Newton and Ms. Rockwell say that many patient education materials are written at or above high school level.6


Additionally, the use of medical jargon, while helpful for communicating


Better information One possible solution lies in changing the way in which physicians educate their patients at every step of the process. From patient information brochures and patient decision aids to accessible consenting platforms, efforts are underway to change the way in which health information is presented.


Dr. Keller, Dr. Newton and Ms. Rockwell have spearheaded the development of IR-focused patient decision aids (PDAs) with the Interventional Initiative and Applied Ethics in IR organizations.


These PDAs contain balanced information about a procedure’s benefits, risks and alternatives. Currently, the PDAs are being developed as physical handouts, with a corresponding free web-based information page. But patient education materials can come in many forms, such as handouts, figures, posters or videos, all with the aim of providing patients with accessible, comprehensive, understandable information they need to make an informed healthcare decision.


According to Drs. Newton and Keller, the PDAs produced by The Interventional Initiative are developed from a thorough literature review and vetted by focus groups of patients, IR clinicians and radiologists from diverse practice backgrounds. They also feature custom graphic designs that depict the intervention. This is important, because everyone learns and processes information differently—so


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40