Improving outcomes and shared decisions in pancreatic cancer using animated pancreas patient (APP) visual formats of learning: A National Pancreas Foundation (NPF) patient education initiative.

Abstract

e16242 Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) outcomes continue to be dismal in the United States (US) and worldwide. Efforts are focused on early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. However, knowledge translation in PC and effective resources that address patient-provider collaborative decisions are limited and barriers to health literacy continue to impede patient understanding. Evidence increasingly supports the need for informative education for patients to facilitate shared decisions in critical cancer interventions. We evaluated the National Pancreas Foundation’s APP, a visual approach to learning, to determine how shared-decision making and patient barriers to health literacy can be improved, leading to better patient-provider decisions and outcomes. Methods: Using visual formats of learning (animations, videos, and slide shows), we monitored APP website and YouTube metrics from September 2013 to February 2021. We evaluated learner activity, number of views with highest retention in US and globally. Results: APP gathered 4,551,079 views (489,091 views on the APP website and 4,061,988 views on YouTube) from over 100 countries. The majority of viewers (60%) were from the US with 54% being patients, 17% family/caregivers, 16% healthcare providers and 13% other. The animations "Understanding Clinical Trials", "Pancreatic Cancer: Treatment and Outcomes", “Pancreatic Cancer: Signs, Symptoms and Risk Factors", and "Pancreatic Cancer: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Staging" had 1,372; 4,643; 8,819 and 4,359 views respectively on the website and 180,845; 77,942; 56,151 and 23,112 views respectively on YouTube. Top expert videos viewed most were "What are the different stages of pancreatic cancer?", "What are the symptoms of pancreatic cancer?", “What is a “Placebo” in a clinical trial and is it always used?”, and “What should I expect following surgery to remove a malignant pancreatic cancer tumor?" with 488; 1,558; 76 and 239 views respectively on the website and 14,869; 10,917; 5,206 and 3,624 views respectively on YouTube. Conclusions: Our study suggests visual formats of education are effective in communicating complex health information to persons with poor health literacy. Pancreatic cancer education based on visual formats have vast potential to provide effective learning for patients. Continued efforts should be made to provide resources for patient-provider shared decisions and address patient health literacy barriers for best health outcomes.