LAUSR

Effective patient communication in everyday clinical practice remains challenging, and has been further highlighted through the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients will often only retain around 50% of the information provided to them in consultation, and may even deny information ever being given to them [1]. However, access to information relevant to diagnosis and treatment is important for informed consent and can improve patient satisfaction. Traditionally, printed copies of hospital-approved patient information leaflets (PILs) have been used for this purpose, but both their availability in clinic and uptake can be variable [2]. We developed a novel digital approach to provide patients with vitreoretinal surgical information using QR smartphone technology, and aimed to broaden the uptake of PILs in our clinic. Gardiner et al. suggested a technique of using QR codes for patients to scan to access PILs, and their team created a sheet of QR codes that surgeons could present to patients. They did not however demonstrate its utility [3]. Similarly, we have created a poster of QR codes linking to Trust-approved PILs relevant to the Vitreoretinal Service at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London. The poster was prominently displayed within each clinic room (Fig. 1A) and piloted in attending patients who subsequently completed a survey. To our knowledge, this is the first published real-world assessment of the use of QR technology for dissemination of PILs to patients in the clinical setting. 119 patients were surveyed between November 2020 and April 2021. 52% were male (Fig. 1B). Median age was 60 years (range 20–84 years). 82% had a smartphone capable of utilizing a QR code, a trend which will likely only increase with time. Overall, 67% felt comfortable with the technology once they had used the QR poster and 54% expressed a preference for QR codemediated information acquisition over a printed copy (Fig. 1C–E). Smartphone ownership, confidence with the technology and preference of QR over paper PIL acquisition were all significantly associated with younger age (p= 0.013, p < 0.0001, and p=