Do You Dare to Ask? Influence of Question Recipient and Information Medium on Prompting Preparatory Questions for MR Imaging

Patient portals empower patients to schedule appointments, ask questions, and provide information for upcoming procedures. While patient portals provide advantages for cooperation between medical institutions and patients, provided information can be unengaging. Interactive alternatives include question prompting, which can elicit helpful questions patients would otherwise not ask; and simulations, which have been used to engage patients when informing them about medical procedures. To investigate barriers of simulations and question prompting to engage patients when informing them about a medical procedure, we developed an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) virtual walkthrough and compared task load of this procedural simulation with a standard information leaflet. After receiving information either through the virtual walkthrough or leaflet, we asked 105 participants recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to ask questions about the procedure either to an expert or to a peer. Comparing virtual walkthrough and leaflet, we find positive effects of the walkthrough on mental load. Investigating the linguistic properties of questions, we find experts received more technical questions; peer questions focused on the procedure’s emotional content. Our results give insight into linguistic differences in questions, contribute practical knowledge to prompt questions, and discuss the potential of virtual walkthroughs and peer questions for preparing medical procedures.