Use of Voice Recordings in the Consultation of Patients Seeking Genital Gender-Affirming Surgery: An Opportunity for Broader Application Throughout Surgery?

Abstract

Introduction It has been demonstrated that patient memory for medical information is often poor and inaccurate. The use of audio recordings for patient consultation has been described; however, to our knowledge this is the first reported use of audio recordings in consultation for gender-affirming surgery. Our aim was to determine whether, and specifically how, audio recording the consultation of patients presenting for genital gender-affirming surgery would be of benefit to patients. Materials and Methods We began to offer all new patients the opportunity to have their consultations recorded. At the end of the consultation the recording was uploaded to a USB, which was given to the patient to keep. We then surveyed all patients who had received a copy of their recorded consultation to query the utility of having access to an audio recording of their consultation. Results 71/72 (98.6%) patients who were given the option to have their consultation recorded chose to do so. 50/71 (70%) of patients who had their consultation recorded responded to our survey. Patients reported that having access to a voice recording of their consultation was beneficial and was viewed overwhelmingly positively. Conclusions Routine audio recording of patient consultations is highly beneficial to patients, with little cost to providers, and should be considered as a valuable addition to the new patient consultation. This approach may have applications in broader clinical contexts where patients face numerous, complex, and nuanced management options. The study would benefit from continued application and a larger (multi-center, international) sample.

Attitudes and experiences of cancer patients toward the provision of audio recordings of their own medical encounter: a cross-sectional online survey

“…Consequently, we can conclude that participants would appreciate consultation recordings as a means to address their information needs. Moreover, we found that consultation recordings were expected to be particularly beneficial in contexts involving treatment decisions, which is consistent with prior research demonstrating that consultation recordings are useful for decision-making (Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Kwon et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2022). It is noteworthy that in our sample, similar to findings from previous research (Barr et al, 2018), older patients seem to be less in favour of consultation recordings.…”

“…In relation to participants' positive attitudes toward consultation recordings, our findings align with existing research (Barr et al, 2018;Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Ivermee and Yentis, 2019;Hack et al, 2021;Petric et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2022). Our study also supports previous research indicating that patients value consultation recordings as a suitable solution to the challenge of recalling and comprehending information from medical encounters (van der Meulen et al, 2008;Tsulukidze et al, 2014;van Bruinessen et al, 2017;Barr et al, 2018;Hyatt et al, 2018;Rieger et al, 2018;Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Kwon et al, 2021;Petric et al, 2021;Shepherd et al, 2023).…”

“…This underscores the potential of consultation recordings to not only improve patient outcomes such as recall and comprehension of medical information but also to promote patients' engagement in their own healthcare, consistent with findings from previous research Attitude toward the provision of audio recordings of medical encounters for patients. Topf et al 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1378854 Frontiers in Psychology 07 frontiersin.org (Elwyn et al, 2015;Grande et al, 2017;Hyatt et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2022).…”

Data_Sheet_1.PDF

“…One intervention to address this issue is providing patients with consultation recordings. Several international studies have investigated this intervention, predominantly focusing on cancer patients (Tsulukidze et al, 2014), with the majority of research conducted in the United States (Tsulukidze et al, 2014;Elwyn et al, 2017;Grande et al, 2017;Barr et al, 2018Barr et al, , 2021Joshi et al, 2020;Kwon et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2022), Australia (Lipson-Smith et al, 2016;Moloczij et al, 2017;Hyatt et al, 2018Hyatt et al, , 2020Petric et al, 2021;Ryan et al, 2022), and the United Kingdom (Elwyn et al, 2015;Ivermee and Yentis, 2019;Shepherd et al, 2023). Empirical evidence supporting this intervention reveals a wide range of benefits, which help to meet information needs of patients by improving information recall (van der Meulen et al, 2008;Tsulukidze et al, 2014;Barr et al, 2018;Hyatt et al, 2018;Rieger et al, 2018;Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Kwon et al, 2021;Petric et al, 2021;Shepherd et al, 2023), increasing feelings of being informed (Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Hack et al, 2021), and enhancing understanding (van Bruinessen et al, 2017;Barr et al, 2018;Hyatt et al, 2018;Kwon et al, 2021;Shepherd et al, 2023).…”

“…Empirical evidence supporting this intervention reveals a wide range of benefits, which help to meet information needs of patients by improving information recall (van der Meulen et al, 2008;Tsulukidze et al, 2014;Barr et al, 2018;Hyatt et al, 2018;Rieger et al, 2018;Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Kwon et al, 2021;Petric et al, 2021;Shepherd et al, 2023), increasing feelings of being informed (Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Hack et al, 2021), and enhancing understanding (van Bruinessen et al, 2017;Barr et al, 2018;Hyatt et al, 2018;Kwon et al, 2021;Shepherd et al, 2023). Further benefits include increased patient empowerment (Elwyn et al, 2015;Grande et al, 2017;Hyatt et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2022), facilitation of discussions with family members (Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Hyatt et al, 2020;Kwon et al, 2021;Petric et al, 2021), heightened satisfaction with care (Pitkethly et al, 2008;Dommershuijsen et al, 2019), improvement in decision-making (Dommershuijsen et al, 2019;Kwon et al, 2021;Smith et al, 2022), and reductions in anxiety and depression (Tsulukidze et al, 2014;Rieger et al, 2018;Smith et al, 2022). Research has explored various ways of implementing this intervention, including patient-led recordings [i.e., patients asking clinicians to record with their own recording device or cell phone (Ryan et al, 2022)], covert recordings (Elwyn et al, 2015;Barr et al, 2018), or pro...…”