Abstract 126: Cardiac Stress Testing: Optimizing Outcomes Through Dual Physician-Patient Education

Abstract

Background: Even though cardiovascular (CV) tests, which are used to assess coronary arterial disease (CAD) are included in medical guidelines, cardiologists have limited ability to adequately perform appropriate testing modalities. In parallel, many patients have concerns or anxiety related to CV testing, and are not proactively educated on how to prepare for their procedure. Goals: To determine if an online parallel physician-patient education interventions could improve performance of cardiologists related to CV stress testing, and patient knowledge about the procedure. Methods: An online CME activity was developed as a 25-minute roundtable discussion with 3 leading experts on criteria for appropriate use of stress testing and preparing physicians to communicate the risks and benefits of testing modalities to their patients. The activity included a transcript of the discussion and a downloadable slide deck to reinforce key recommendations. Participant responses to questions were collected after the education (post-assessment) and compared with each user’s baseline data (pre-assessment) using a 2-tailed paired T-test to provide P values for assessing the impact of education. The CME activity also included a link to a patient/caregiver education module, developed in parallel to educate patients and their caregivers about cardiac stress testing. Patient/caregiver responses post-education compared to pre-education were also assessed to measure improvement in knowledge. Results: A total of 312 of cardiologists who participated in the CME activity and answered all pre- and post-assessment questions were included in the analysis. In addition, 3458 patients preparing for a stress test, 640 family members, 116 caregivers, and 3299 other participants interested in the topic of CV testing who completed the patient/caregiver education module and the pre- and post-education questions were included in the assessment. Post-education, significant improvements were observed (Table). Conclusion: This study demonstrated that both knowledge/competence of cardiologists on evidence-based practices as well as the understanding of patient/caregivers on CV testing can be improved using a dual approach to education.