OS12.5.A IMPROVING HEALTH EDUCATION FOR BRAIN TUMOR PATIENTS AND RELATIVES THROUGH ANIMATED AND VISUAL INFORMATION

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Abstract BACKGROUND Brain tumor patients interact with a wide range of healthcare professionals. It is important that they receive simple and unequivocal information about what awaits them. This contributes to shared decision making, an individual treatment plan and informed consent. Providing information becomes challenging when people are communicatively vulnerable, i.e. when they are ill or experience intense emotions. A high number of brain tumor patients are communicatively vulnerable because they have cognitive deficits or language impairments. Information processing may become slower because of the tumor and/or treatment. In 2023 the neuro-oncology task group of OncoWest, a network in the west of the Netherlands, prioritized the improvement of health care education for patients with a primary brain tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS Visual and spoken information combined was considered best for brain tumor patients, including those with low literacy. A graphics agency was approached to create animations and a project team was assembled. The team consisted of two nurses, a clinical linguist and a communication advisor. They devised the content and texts for three main topics: care process, treatments and consequences. Texts were written in B1, a language level understood by the majority of Dutch citizens. Other factors were also taken into account, such as length of sentences, use of active tense and total duration of the videos. The texts were then reviewed by specialists in the field of neuro-oncology, and patients. A voice actor finally did the voiceover. Clinical linguists gave intermediate feedback on the animation videos. The videos still seemed too complex and fast for individuals with aphasia. Therefore, an additional tool was developed for people with aphasia as to provide extra written information, illustrated by stills from the videos. A clinical linguist simplified the text and bolded important words. RESULTS Three animation videos were developed of about three minutes each, all freely accessible, with explanation and information about 1) the care process from initial complaints to diagnosis, 2) possible treatments surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and best supportive care, 3) symptoms and consequences of the disease. Furthermore an interactive pdf was made available for patients with aphasia and could be printed. CONCLUSION We described the development of clear, easily accessible visual information for brain tumor patients. The information is now available for patients, including everyone around the patient, which will hopefully increase their understanding and health care process. We hope to promote and evaluate the use of these materials in the near future.

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