Background:

Kidney stone disease (KSD) affects approximately 10% of Americans with an annual healthcare cost exceeding $5 billion. Despite its prevalence, patients often lack reliable information about management options, with 60% seeking health information online where content is frequently of moderate to low reliability. This knowledge gap particularly affects racially minoritized, elderly, and low socioeconomic status populations, hindering effective shared decision-making (SDM). Current educational materials often exceed recommended reading levels and lack diverse representation, creating barriers for vulnerable populations.

Objectives:

To develop a standardized, culturally competent, video-based educational platform that enhances KSD patients' comprehension of their healthcare options and facilitates effective participation in shared decision-making, with particular attention to addressing the needs of underserved populations.

Design:

This two-phase project will first establish a diverse Patient Advisory Board (PAB) of kidney stone formers and conduct a 169-patient survey to identify essential information needs. The second phase will develop a standardized video creation system through multidisciplinary collaboration between urologists, health educators, and content creators. The platform will feature AI-driven avatar-based educators representing diverse demographics to enhance cultural relevance and engagement. Ten short videos (<5 minutes) will be created using the Patient-Centered Digital Health Literacy Framework, ensuring accessibility across age, literacy, and technological proficiency levels.

Impact/Effectiveness:

The platform addresses critical health equity challenges by providing standardized, evidence-based content through an engaging multimedia format shown to improve health information retention and adherence to care. Preliminary work indicates video-based education reduces patient anxiety and procedure cancellations compared to written materials, while AI-driven approaches have demonstrated success in improving health literacy among minority populations.

Lessons Learned:

Effective patient education requires addressing both content needs and delivery methods tailored to diverse populations. Traditional information delivery methods often fail patients with lower health literacy or limited access to healthcare providers, necessitating innovative approaches that incorporate community input and leverage technology appropriately.

Summary:

This innovative approach to urological patient education integrates patient perspectives, clinical expertise, and advanced technology to create standardized, accessible health information. By developing culturally relevant content delivered through engaging video formats, the project aims to empower diverse patient populations in kidney stone management decisions, reduce information disparities, and establish a foundation for standardized video-based health information tools across other urological conditions.