Acceptance of Supportive Illustrations for Preparation of Patients for an Orthopedic Telemedical Consultation.

Telemedical video consultations are a powerful support for patient-doctor interactions. For optimal digital settings, explanatory illustrations may be helpful for patients. This study analyzed patients' the attitude of patients to illustrations preparing for an orthopedic telemedical consultation (OTC). A leaflet with eight illustrations was designed and their acceptance and estimated necessity was evaluated among patients who had experienced an OTC (EXP-group) and others who had not (NOV-group) with a 12-item-questionnaire. Sixty patients participated ( = 30 each group). All illustrations were evaluated positively. The EXP-group gave significantly higher ratings than the NOV-group for improved understanding by the given keywords of the illustrations ( = 0.046), preference for being informed by illustrations than by merely by a pure text ( = 0.023), better feeling of preparation for an OTC by the illustrations ( = 0.005), and the impression of a simplified process of the OTC by the illustrations ( = 0.012). While the illustrations were well-accepted by the participants, significant differences were revealed between the valuation of single aspects by patients, depending on a previous experience with an OTC. Therefore, a leaflet with explanatory illustrations may be helpful in preparing patients for an OTC to support the digital patient-doctor contact.