Partnering with patients to guide the development of impactful educational resources for warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA)

Abstract Introduction: Warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA) is a rare, life-threatening, relapsing, autoantibody-driven disease associated with a significant physical, emotional, and quality of life burden on patients and caregivers. In rare diseases like wAIHA, patients more often rely on publicly available online disease information to improve their health literacy, however available data and educational resources on the internet are often limited. Rapidly evolving technology has led to a rise in patients and care partners utilizing online digital health resources to gather information and seek support. Developing patient-facing educational materials in collaboration with the end user may help increase utilization and engagement, which would facilitate improving patient health. This qualitative patient research aimed to gather feedback from individuals living with wAIHA on creative concepts for a disease state education website and to gain insight on proposed content areas for the educational resource. Methods: A wAIHA patient council was convened to better understand the perspective of individuals living with wAIHA. US-based adults with a self-reported diagnosis of wAIHA who were members of the patient council participated in a 2-hour virtual focus group to discuss a wAIHA disease state education website concept and provide insight into potential gaps in patient education. Participants were permitted to provide feedback in an online questionnaire as an alternative to joining the session. The session focused on reviewing the website design concept and four proposed content areas. Focus group discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were qualitatively analyzed to identify key themes and insights. Results: Four individuals living with wAIHA participated in the virtual focus group and one gave feedback via the online survey. Most participants were female (80%) and White (60%). Participants expressed an unmet need for a reliable and easy to understand educational website that could be utilized by patients, care partners, and their loved ones throughout the wAIHA journey. The most important information for the wAIHA educational website, as identified by participants, included disease state information (ranging from basic disease explanations/definitions to comprehensive data on the disease), resources for patient support groups, and patient testimonials. Proposed content areas included suspected wAIHA, understanding wAIHA, living with wAIHA, and resources and support; these were all deemed valuable by participants. They recommended enhancements like creating a dedicated section for family and care partners, offering guidance on parenting with wAIHA, and providing further explanations of disease-related terms and resources. Insights gathered on the initial website design concept provided actionable changes to content such as alternative imagery to emphasize the wAIHA community and refinement of text to reinforce the website as a guiding tool for patients and care partners. Participant feedback was incorporated into the final concept resulting in a patient-centered digital resource. Conclusions: Including perspectives of individuals living with wAIHA in the development of patient-facing educational resources is key to creating impactful tools for the intended user. Insights collected from this exploratory research directly contributed to the improvement of the concept for a wAIHA disease state education website, making it more engaging and impactful. This research demonstrates the value of focus groups in gaining insight into patient preferences for educational resources and guiding their development to be customized for the end user.