Traditional Versus iPad-Assisted Preoperative Education

Backgroud: Radical cystectomy has become the most common treatment modality for patients with high-grade or muscle-invasive urothelial cancers. Patients scheduled for cystectomy require in-depth preoperative education regarding management of their urinary diversions. When evaluating patients scheduled for cystectomy and urinary diversion in the preoperative area, the author found very poor retention of knowledge regarding the surgery, body image alteration, and the care involved after surgery. Therefore, adding a multimedia tool like an iPad will be utilized in the preoperative education to examine the effects on knowledge retention.

Methods: This study will utilize a pretest – posttest design, where subjects are randomly assigned to either receive standard pre-operative education with pamphlets or iPad assisted pre-operative education. Outcome measured will be knowledge retention through the use of a 10 multiple choice questionnaire. The questionnaire will be administered prior to the pre-operative education session and then again in the preoperative are prior to surgery. Questionnaire scores will be measured using repeated measures ANOVA. The Chi-square test will be utilized to compare both groups.

Results: The expected sample size of 40 patients will be randomly assigned to receive either standard education or iPad assisted education. The content of the education will be the same and both groups will be given the standard pamphlet to go home to review. The goal will be to investigate whether the iPad assisted preoperative education is similar or superior to the existing standard education utilized.

Conclusion: Use of multimedia tools like iPad in preoperative education can be effective in improving knowledge retention in patients undergoing complex body altering surgeries.