TreatmentExplorer: an Interactive Decision Aid for Medical Risk Communication and Treatment Exploration

Abstract

Medical treatments carry unique benefits and risks which patients must understand in order to decide which option is best for them. Prior research has demonstrated that patients are ill-equipped to understand the statistical information presented to them through standard decision aids. We describe a prototype decision aid, TreatmentExplorer, which supports patients’ needs by presenting treatment outcome, onset of symptoms and treatment side effects using a novel graphic representation with staged animation and text-only narration. Our prototype also illustrates the use of a data-driven personalization approach by using electronic health record data. We report on expert reviews, a pilot study (<f>$n=24$</f>) and a main study (<f>$n=42$</f>), which characterize the benefits of TreatmentExplorer over a text-only decision aid as well as a version without staged animation, and conclude with guidelines for designers.