Medical Comics as Tools to Aid in Obtaining Informed Consent for Stroke Care

Abstract

Informed consent has now become common in medical practice. However, a gap still exists between doctors and patients in the understanding of clinical conditions. We designed medical comics about “subarachnoid hemorrhage” and “intracerebral hemorrhage” to help doctors obtain informed consent intuitively, quickly, and comprehensively.Between September 2010 and September 2012, we carried out a questionnaire survey about medical comics with the families of patients who had suffered an intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage. The questionnaire consisted of 6 questions inquiring about their mental condition, reading time, usefulness of the comics in understanding brain function and anatomy, pathogenesis, doctor's explanation, and applicability of these comics.The results showed that 93.8% responders would prefer or strongly prefer the use of comics in other medical situations. When considering the level of understanding of brain function and anatomy, pathology of disease, and doctor's explanation, 81.3%, 75.0%, and 68.8% of responders, respectively, rated these comics as very useful or useful.We think that the visual and narrative illustrations in medical comics would be more helpful for patients than a lengthy explanation by a doctor. Most of the responders hoped that medical comics would be applied to other medical cases. Thus, medical comics could work as a new communication tool between doctors and patients.

The potential of comics in science communication

“…When compared to traditional text-based material, comics appear to significantly improve understanding and recollection of medical conditions [Diamond et al, 2016;Tekle-Haimanot et al, 2016], compliance with medical instructions [Delp and Jones, 1996;Tjiam et al, 2013], promote informed consent [Furuno and Sasajima, 2015;Kraft et al, 2016], facilitate interactions between patients and doctors [Anderson, Wescom and Carlos, 2016] and between patients and their communities [McNicol, 2014;McNicol, 2017], and generally improve community engagement with medical issues [Leung et al, 2014;Wang, Acevedo and Sadler, 2017]. However, the health-related information presented in these comics clearly has a different emotional value than generic scientific knowledge.…”

A didactic approach to presenting verbal and visual information to children participating in research protocols: the comic book informed assent

“…Documents that are clear and understandable can still obey the law. This idea is corroborated by the fact that other comic book initiatives around the world 11 - 14 have previously been used successfully to educate patients (both children and adults) 10 , 19 . The present study further supports those findings and demonstrates that all 20 healthy children rated their understanding of the comic book's text as either perfect, very good, or good, and their understanding of the illustrations was rated as perfect and very good.…”

“…Clinical practitioners Furuno and Sasajima 19 believe that a gap still exists between physicians and patients with regard to understanding clinical conditions. Thus, they created comics to explain diseases to patients (in this case, subarachnoid hemorrhage and intracerebral hemorrhage).…”

“…According to Tait et al (2007) 17 , 81% of young children chose a modified form with pictures that improved reading and comprehension. Comic books have been successfully used to educate stroke patients 19 and schoolchildren 10 , and the deliberations regarding their importance and effectiveness justify the use of pictures or cartoons to enable children, adolescents, and the legally incapable to easily understand protocols, processes, risks, and the right to withdraw.…”

Medical Comics as Tools to Aid in Obtaining Informed Consent for Stroke Care

“…In the article “Medical Comics as Tools to Aid in Obtaining Informed Consent for Stroke Care”, 1 which appeared in Volume 94, Issue 26 of Medicine , an incorrect and extraneous copyright line was included. The copyright belongs solely to Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.…”