Improving distress screening completion rates: Does virtual robot animation make a difference?

Abstract

e21672 Background: Distress screening is an important part of cancer patients’ care. Programs accredited by Commission on Cancer must implement distress screening programs, based on improved doctor-patient relationships and clinical outcomes. We are interested in evaluating the use of an anthropomorphic robotic interface to improve survey completion rates and the patient experience. Methods: A validated distress screening survey was scheduled for 74 patients in 2016 in an IRB-exempt survey study. Patients were randomly assigned to fill out the survey on iPAD (N = 33), or on iPAD with a virtual robot animation (“Betty”) introducing the survey (N = 41). Patients were then asked to fill out a validated 10 question Technology Acceptance Model questionnaire (TAM) asking about ease of iPAD use. A five point Likert scale was used. Finally, two yes/no questions were asked: 1) “Were you more interested in filling out the distress screening survey because of the “Betty” animation?”, and 2) “Did the animation make filling out the distress screening survey more enjoyable?” Results: The survey completion rate was 24/33 = 73% for control and 26/41 = 63% for intervention groups (p = 0.86). Forty five patients completed the TAM questionnaire, with completion rate 92% and 88%, respectively. Average iPAD TAM score was 4.3 in the control group and 4.0 in the intervention group (p = 0.12), and none of the 10 questions showed statistically significant difference in ease of use. The last two questions evaluating “Betty” directly were answered by 17/23 and 15/23 patients, respectively. 8/17 felt they were more interested in filling out the distress screening because of “Betty”, and 7/15 felt “Betty” made the distress screening more enjoyable. Conclusions: The presence of “Betty” as part of the survey process did not negatively impact the completion rates. There was no significant difference between the groups in perceived ease of use of the iPAD on which the survey was administered. Approximately half of the patients taking the distress survey with the “Betty” animation felt they were more interested in filling out the survey and the process was more enjoyable. We are currently evaluating whether a true robot may improve completion rates and patient experience.