Animated patient’s guide to melanoma: Assessing patient understanding, shared decision-making, and health outcomes.

9581 Background: Patients with melanoma who participate in informed, personalized-care discussions with their healthcare providers are better prepared to carry out shared decision-making (SDM) and achieve best attainable health outcomes. In a 2018 Cancer Registry Experience study of 114 melanoma survivors, a majority of respondents did not feel knowledgeable or prepared to discuss treatment options with their healthcare team. The complexity of melanoma treatments and patients' limitations due to poor health literacy are obstacles to SDM. In November 2018, the Melanoma Research Foundation introduced An Animated Patient’s Guide to Melanoma (APGM), an online resource aimed at improving patient knowledge, informed SDM, and achieving best outcomes. Methods: APGM was developed with highly visual formats of learning on a website, comprised of melanoma educational animations, expert videos, patient experience videos, slide shows, infographics, and self-assessment tools. Learners on the website have the option to voluntarily participate in evaluations, including pop quizzes and surveys. From the website, learner responses were collected from surveys over a period of 72 months, ending January 2025. Patient responses to these questions were aggregated to measure outcome-based questions, and patient intention to discuss key decisions with healthcare providers. Results: Our 6-year reported data is based on 443,015 total views and 272,191 unique visitors aggregated from the APGM online resource. Unique US visitors were 54% (N=146,983); and 46% (N=125,208) from other countries. In terms of US participants/learners: 72% (N=105,828) were patients; 12% (N=17,638) were family and caregivers; 6% (N=8,819) were healthcare providers; and 10% (N=14,698) were other/undisclosed. Of the respondents who volunteered to complete the surveys, 95% (N=1,059) were patients who reported they ‘ will use information learned to better self-manage their melanoma’ ; 93% (N=969) of patients ‘will discuss information learned with their doctor’ ; and 95% (N=694) of patients ‘will discuss melanoma treatment options with their doctor’ . Conclusions: Our data shows that animated formats of learning tailored to the needs and learning styles of patients with melanoma provide effective translational learning resources, improve self-management skills, and facilitate engagement in SDM. Visual formats of learning are effective resources in helping inform patients with melanoma and improving outcomes. Our APGM initiative validates the utility of visual formats of learning which may be utilized in other oncology settings to benefit patient outcomes.