A patient can leave a medical consultation feeling informed and still forget a significant portion of what was discussed. This is not necessarily a reflection of the physician, the patient, or the quality of the conversation. Medical appointments often require people to process a substantial amount of unfamiliar information in a relatively short period of time. Surgical consultations can add another layer of difficulty because patients may simultaneously be thinking about risks, recovery, results, work, family responsibilities, and the decision itself.
Research has documented this challenge for decades. A review published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reported that 40 to 80 percent of medical information provided by healthcare practitioners may be forgotten immediately. Of the information patients did remember, almost half could be remembered incorrectly.1
For medical practices, that raises an important question: How do you help patients understand and retain important information after they leave the office?
Increasingly, part of the answer may be giving patients reliable educational information that they can revisit.
Why medical information can be difficult to remember
A surgical consultation may cover candidacy, anatomy, procedural options, risks, benefits, alternatives, recovery, medications, activity restrictions, and expectations. Even when each concept is explained clearly, the cumulative amount of information can be substantial.
Terminology creates another obstacle. Physicians and clinical staff use medical terminology every day, while patients may be encountering many of these words and concepts for the first time. A patient can understand the individual words being used without necessarily developing an accurate mental picture of what actually happens during a procedure.
This is particularly relevant in surgical specialties because so much of the information is inherently visual. Consider something as seemingly straightforward as explaining breast implant placement. A physician can describe the relationship between an implant, breast tissue, the pectoralis muscle, and the chest wall, but an anatomical animation can show those relationships immediately. The same principle applies to procedures such as abdominoplasty, rhinoplasty, facelift surgery, breast reduction, and liposuction.
Anxiety can make communication more challenging as well. Patients contemplating surgery may naturally be thinking about pain, anesthesia, complications, recovery, and results while simultaneously trying to absorb new information.
The challenge, therefore, is not simply providing patients with enough information. It is communicating that information in ways they can understand, remember, and revisit.
Giving patients more than one opportunity to learn
Patient education does not have to be treated as a single event. People often benefit from encountering important information more than once and in more than one format.
A physician may explain a procedure during the consultation. Written information can reinforce that explanation afterward. An illustration can help clarify anatomy, while an animation can demonstrate a procedure visually. The patient can then revisit those resources after returning home, when there is more time to process what was discussed.
Rather than asking one communication method to do everything, practices can give patients several opportunities to understand the same important concepts.
Research supports the value of this approach. A 2024 systematic review and meta analysis examined 28 studies evaluating visual approaches to health literacy and comprehension. The analysis found that visual interventions improved comprehension of health related information and that video was more effective than traditional methods and written materials.2
Research in surgical settings has also demonstrated benefits. In a randomized controlled trial of video assisted informed consent for Mohs micrographic surgery, patients who watched an educational video demonstrated greater knowledge than patients receiving standard consent. They also reported greater satisfaction with their understanding of surgical risks and spent less consultation time with the physician.3
Another randomized trial involving Mohs surgery found that educational video increased patients' recognition of procedural risks and their confidence in understanding risks and benefits, although overall comprehension, anxiety, and satisfaction did not significantly differ between groups.4
Those distinctions are important because the evidence does not support the claim that every educational video will reduce anxiety, improve satisfaction, or improve every outcome for every patient. The more defensible conclusion is that well designed visual and video education can improve important aspects of patient understanding and can be a useful supplement to conventional patient education.
Extending the consultation beyond the office
One of the most practical advantages of digital patient education is that it does not disappear when the appointment ends.
A patient can review a procedure video before the consultation and arrive with a basic understanding of what will be discussed. The same patient can watch it again afterward, when new questions arise or details from the conversation become difficult to remember. Educational material can also be shared with a spouse, partner, or family member who may be involved in the patient's care or decision.
This ability to revisit information may be just as important as the format itself. Patients do not have to rely entirely on their memory of a conversation that occurred days or weeks earlier.
Providing education before an appointment can also change the nature of the conversation during the appointment. A patient encountering every concept for the first time may understandably ask, "What happens during this procedure?" A patient who already understands the basic procedure may instead ask, "Given my anatomy, which approach do you recommend and why?"
The second question is where the physician's expertise becomes especially valuable. General educational content can explain what a procedure is. Only the physician can explain what is appropriate for an individual patient.
This is why video education should not be viewed as an alternative to physician communication. The strongest model is physician communication supported by educational technology. Standardized educational content can explain general anatomy and procedural concepts consistently, while the physician provides individual judgment, discusses whether a procedure is appropriate, explains individualized risks and alternatives, answers questions, and establishes realistic expectations.
There can also be value in consistency across a practice. Patient education is rarely delivered by only one person. Surgeons, nurses, coordinators, and other staff members may all answer questions at different stages of care. A standardized educational resource can provide a common foundation while allowing each member of the clinical team to add information appropriate to the patient's individual needs.
Making education more accessible
Patient populations are also increasingly diverse, and language differences can make already complex medical information more difficult to understand.
Educational resources available in a patient's preferred language can allow patients to review important information outside the pressure of an appointment. Captions, narration, written explanations, illustrations, and animation provide different ways to engage with the same material and can help practices communicate with patients who have different learning preferences.
This is particularly important when practices evaluate patient education resources. Production quality alone is not enough. Educational content should be medically accurate, use understandable language, explain relevant anatomy clearly, set realistic expectations, and undergo appropriate clinical review. It should be readily accessible when patients need it and, where appropriate, available in languages that reflect the population the practice serves.
Most importantly, patient education should explain rather than persuade.
The goal is not to convince a patient to have a procedure. It is to help the patient understand the procedure well enough to have an informed conversation about whether it is appropriate.
The goal is better understanding
Healthcare practices have access to more communication technology than ever before, but the fundamental objective of patient education has not changed. Patients need to understand what is happening, why it is happening, what they should expect, what the limitations and risks are, and what questions they should ask.
Written information remains important. The physician conversation remains essential. Visual education adds another layer by making complex information easier to see and allowing patients to revisit it when they are ready.
For surgical practices, this can transform patient education from something that happens during a single conversation into an ongoing process that begins before the consultation and continues afterward.
The technology is ultimately secondary. What matters is whether the patient understands.
References
- Kessels RPC. Patients' memory for medical information. J R Soc Med. 2003;96(5):219 to 222. doi:10.1258/jrsm.96.5.219.
- Galmarini E, Marciano L, Schulz PJ. The effectiveness of visual based interventions on health literacy in health care: a systematic review and meta analysis. BMC Health Serv Res. 2024;24:718. doi:10.1186/s12913 024 11138 1.
- Miao Y, Venning VL, Mallitt KA, et al. A randomized controlled trial comparing video assisted informed consent with standard consent for Mohs micrographic surgery. JAAD Int. 2020;1(1):13 to 20. doi:10.1016/j.jdin.2020.03.005.
- Bowers N, Eisen DB. Using a multimedia tool for informed consent in Mohs surgery: a randomized trial measuring effects on patient anxiety, knowledge, and satisfaction. Dermatol Surg. 2020.
