(447) Use of Audio Recordings in the Consultation of Patients Seeking Gender-Affirming Surgery

Abstract

Abstract Introduction It has been demonstrated that patient memory for medical information is often poor and inaccurate. Providing patients with an audio recording of their consultation has been shown to increase patient recall of information, improves confidence in their treatment decisions, and decreases decision regret. Patients have also reported increased satisfaction with their treatment, felt more involved in their decision making, and reported an improved relationship with the health professional. Objective The use of audio recordings has primarily been investigated in the setting of oncologic consultation and has been described in other patient settings as well; however, to our knowledge this is the first reported use of audio recordings in consultation for gender-affirming surgery. Methods We conducted a pilot study and began offering all new patients the opportunity to have their consultations recorded. 100% of the patients who were given the option to have the consultation recorded chose to do so. At the end of the consultation the recording was uploaded to a USB, which was either given to the patient to take home immediately or was mailed to their home address within a few days of their consultation. A copy of each consultation was retained by the providers as a record. We then sent out a survey to all patients who had received a copy of their audio consultation to query the utility of having access to an audio recording of their consultation. Results 15/27 patients who had their consultation recorded responded to our survey (6 transfeminine and 9 transmasculine). Mean age was 30.4. One patient reported they did not receive their recording in the mail, leaving 14 respondents to answer questions about the audio. Survey responses are shown in Table 1. Conclusions In our series, patients reported that having access to an audio recording of their consultation was beneficial and was viewed overwhelmingly positively. To our knowledge, this is the first study examining the use of audio recordings in the surgical consultation process for patients seeking genital gender-affirming surgery. Disclosure No