New Project! Prostate Cancer Education

The Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network (SSCN) is “an advisory committee to Saskatchewan Health dedicated to creating a more reasonable, fair surgical system for all Saskatchewan people.” I’m the urology representative on the Surgical Services Subcommittee. Our most recent initiative is to improve men’s experience when diagnosed with prostate cancer.

We’re looking at several aspects:

Initial diagnosis (from the initial primary care visit to prostate biopsy)
Access to treatment
Education about prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment

The first piece we’re going to work on is education. Our Prostate Cancer Education working group’s first meeting on October 2 included representation from:

Urology
Radiation Oncology
Patient support/advocacy
Provincial and regional health
Hospital foundation
Nursing education

The main chunks are content and delivery. We want to make the information widely accessible, taking into account varying levels of literacy and access to technology. Even though the final delivery may be using various methods (written, DVD, internet), I’m interested in developing the material using a collaborative, online model a la Wikipedia. I think this approach will help address several problems with producing patient education material.

Similar education projects I’ve been involved with laboured over the material for months, resulting in a monolithic product (usually a pamphlet or brochure) that can’t be easily modified. Even though we had reviewed the pamphlet many times, there would invariably be a forehead-slapping moment when we’d say “We forgot…”

Also, when the information is aimed at patients, it’s difficult for health-care professionals to know what content is appropriate. Is the information relevant? Have we assumed too much regarding prior medical knowledge? Are we presenting the information at a suitable literacy level?

Here’s my suggestion: Break the information into small segments (e.g. explaining the prostate biopsy, prostate anatomy and function, radiation treatment side-effects) and produce a brief, draft presentation on each topic. Post these presentations on the internet, using Youtube (for video) or Slideshare (for Powerpoint). Invite anyone and everyone to comment on them. (An email to a prostate cancer support group should get this rolling.) If the segments are brief, it’s easy to modify them with the requested changes. Once we’re confident that we’ve covered the necessary information, we can consolidate the segments into one presentation (for use on a DVD), or leave them separate on a website so users can more easily access the particular topic they’re interested in.

The most important part of this is Ready… Fire… Aim! Forget about the interminable planning and editing. Let’s get some product out there and rely on the real experts – our patients – to help us refine it.

Stay tuned…