![](https://thelimbic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/hyatt.jpg)
Amelia Hyatt
A smartphone app that allows patients to make an audio recording of their medical consultation will promote better understanding of complex information and could be ready for use in around a year, according to its Victorian developers.
Amelia Hyatt, the senior researcher behind the Second Ears app says it is nearing the end of its clinical testing at the Peter Mac Cancer Centre in Melbourne.
The app is designed to help patients manage the large amount of information they are given by doctors at their hospital appointments, which can be confusing and overwhelming, especially if people are feeling anxious, upset, or have been given some bad news.
“Giving patients audio-recordings of their hospital consultations has been successful and beneficial for English-speaking oncology patients, particularly in improving understanding and recall of information given,” the Second Ears team says.
“[Audio recordings] also allow patients to assume a significantly more active role in subsequent consultations and in treatment decision making, and provide patients with a means to initiate treatment discussions with family.”
What sets the app apart from a patient simply recording a consultation on their smartphone is that it is designed to send a copy of any recording to the health service in question. The consultation record is stored and can become a valid part of the patient’s medical record with all the rights that entails, including access under Freedom of Information laws, though the primary intention is that the consultation recording is kept on the patient’s phone to assist them in information recall.
Amelia Hyatt says patients have been testing Second Ears ‘live’ within the hospital with oncologists, nurses and allied health professionals, and evaluation of that data is currently underway to help implement use of the app in hospital settings.
Second Ears has been created in partnership with Melbourne-based developer Wave Digital, and “key feedback” from both patients and clinicians has been “overwhelmingly supportive”, said Ms Hyatt.
“Most doctors can really see the benefits for the patients, particularly those diagnosed with something like cancer or managing chronic disease and they think it will improve patient care,” she told the limbic.