Public Outreach Info-day

On October 17, 2019 within the project “DeepRaft: Doctors’ Education, Empowerment of Patients, Regarding Atrial Fibrillation and venous Thromboembolism" the representatives of Zaporizhzhia State Medical University conducted an info-day for patients at the City Hospital of Urgent and Emergency Medical Services under Zaporizhzhia City Council.

The organizers of the event - professors of the Department of Internal Diseases No1 Serhii Kyselov and Dmytro Lashkul, and Associate Professor of the Department of Multimodal Diagnostics and Propedeutics Ivetta Lykhasenko - invited about 50 patients with atrial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis, or of high risk of the diseases, to participate in the event.

Vivid informative leaflets containing the information relevant to the topic, main statistics, symptoms of the disease, risks for patients in case of symptoms’ ignoring and advice on the proper treatment were shared among the participants. The multimedia presentation, prepared by the professors, provided general information on the purpose of the event, the relevance of the topic, the main aspects of diagnosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism.

Participants were particularly interested in the analysis of so-called vignettes - specific cases with Virtual Patients, co-created by the DeepRaft Consortium Members, localized and hosted on the OpenLabyrinth platform. The scientists, together with the patients, elaborated on the possible answers and, through discussion, found the right solution in each case. Such interaction facilitated the establishment of trusting doctor-patient relations, so after analyzing 4 vignettes, patients asked hundreds of questions about the causes of the diseases, individual features of the disease course, concomitant pathological conditions, modern methods of treatment, the possibility of using different groups of medicines simultaneously and the safety of using modern medications.

All patients noted the high quality and informative nature of the info-day, the usefulness and importance of the given information, the trusting doctor-patient relationships that had arisen during the event.

17 October 2019