Comparative Effectiveness of a Patient Centered Pathology Report for Bladder Cancer Care

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Medical Informatics
• Health Literacy

Background:

• Patients increasingly access medical records, but complex reports like pathology findings can challenge health literacy.
• Understanding pathology reports is crucial for informed patient decision-making in cancer care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of patient-centered bladder biopsy pathology reports versus standard reports.
• To assess the impact of report format on patient knowledge, self-efficacy, and provider communication.

Main Methods:

• Bladder cancer experts and patients co-developed patient-centered reports focusing on key prognostic elements.
• A randomized controlled trial assigned 40 patients to receive either standard or patient-centered reports.
• Outcomes measured included cancer knowledge, self-efficacy, and provider communication at diagnosis and 1-month follow-up.

Main Results:

• Patients receiving patient-centered reports demonstrated significantly better understanding of their cancer stage compared to the standard group.
• Improvements in identifying cancer stage were sustained at 1-month follow-up.
• A trend towards improved cancer grade identification and provider communication was observed with patient-centered reports.

Conclusions:

• Patient-centered pathology reports enhance patient knowledge of bladder cancer diagnoses.
• These reports show potential to improve patient-provider communication and can serve as a model for other cancer types.