Patient Education Videos to Improve Patients' Experience During Radiotherapy Treatment: a National Project

Patient Education Videos to Improve Patients' Experience During Radiotherapy Treatment: a National Project

Patients often base their information on the experiences of other patients or on information they find on the internet. This information is in many cases incorrect, outdated or not applying to the patient's situation. This leads to misconceptions or inappropriate anxiety. During the intake consultation at the radiotherapy department, doctors, nurses and RTTs provide accurate and patient-specific information, but it can be overwhelming and it is known that only part of this information is remembered. Moreover, it remains difficult for a patient to imagine how the treatment will proceed.

The combination of verbal information, supplemented with video material, seems to be the ideal way to convey information. After all, a video can be viewed again afterwards, possibly together with loved ones, or can be shown in advance in preparation of the consultation. In Belgium, the existence of patient education videos about radiotherapy is very limited. Making these kinds of videos is expensive and time consuming. For that reason, BeSTRO (Belgian Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology) started a project to make videos for patients that can be used nationally by all radiotherapy centers. The project is sponsored by Foundation against Cancer.

A first video illustrating the general radiotherapy process is already available. This video will be used as a 'test video' to be shown to patients undergoing radiotherapy in one of the 4 participating centers. Questionnaires will evaluate the quality and the impact of the video and will assess the need for additional information. Moreover, 25 patients will be invited to participate in 5 focus groups, each focus group concentrating on one of the 5 most frequent tumor groups (breast tumors, lung tumors, head and neck tumors, urological tumors and gastro-intestinal tumors). The information gathered from the questionnaires and focus groups will be used to determine the content and format of the next videos. In total, about 10 videos on specific parts of the radiotherapy process will be produced.

Inclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of cancer,
• age ≥ 18 years,
• undergoing radiotherapy as part of their treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

- history of previous radiation treatment