ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 25 (UPI) -- A University of Michigan study finds that videos are more effective for teaching patients about their condition but doctors are better at soothing anxiety.
"This tells us that the videotape is an excellent educational tool, but that it can't replace a positive patient-doctor relationship," said Dr. Jeffrey Orringer.
Orringer headed a team at the University of Michigan Health System that developed an 11-minute video for patients at the melanoma clinic. They developed a scoring system for knowledge of the disease, an often-deadly skin cancer, and for anxiety and emotional distress.
The team found that patients who watched the video knew much more about the disease than those who had talked to their doctors. But they found that while both groups had reduced anxiety the second group was much less anxious.
Orringer said that the video's consistency is both its strength and its weakness. The video always gives the same facts but cannot tailor its facts or its knowledge to a patient's specific condition or state of mind.
The study was published in the latest Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
