Patients and families have reported clinic visits with their care team can be very overwhelming and stressful due to large amounts of new information, words that are unfamiliar, and the need to make decisions based on what they have been told. Research also shows that patients may forget up to 80% of health care information discussed at clinic visits.

The My Care Conversations app is a smart phone application that will allow patients to record their conversations with their health-care providers to help reduce stress and assist with recall and understanding. Patients and families that use the app will be empowered to take a more active role in their healthcare by being able to record and re-listen to their conversations. Being able to record and re-listen to their appointments will help patients understand complex discussion points and clarify any misunderstandings. Patients can also choose to share their recordings with trusted individuals who were not able to attend the clinical visit with their care providers.

Research has shown that re-listening to appointments along with sharing and discussing with family and trusted friends can help:

• Reduce anxiety
• Improve recall of information discussed which supports informed decision making
• Improve communication between the patient and their family members and other trusted individuals
• Improve satisfaction with care experiences

How Does It Work?

If you are interested in using the AHS My Care Conversation app, you can find it on the app store (for Apple devices) and on the Google Play store (for Android devices). It is a free download. Once installed you will need to read over and accept the terms of use.

The app has a built in tutorial that will walk you through the key functions of the app. In the tutorial there is information about how to prepare for your upcoming appointment, make a high quality recording of your clinical conversation, re-listen to it after the conversation is done, and share it if you want.

The app will remind you of important things like remembering to tell your health care provider that you would like to make a recording of the appointment, and to not record in public spaces. Your health care provider will be able to help you understand when you should start the recording to make sure you recording the most valuable information. The clinician may request a copy of the recording. As the recording is your property, it is up to you if you want to share the recording and with whom. You do not need the clinician’s consent to record.

Alberta Health Services would like to encourage patients to use the AHS My Care Conversations app as it has security features in it that will help ensure the safest environment for recording, storing and sharing your audio file.

Your Clinician may/will:

• Encourage you to use the AHS My Care Conversation app instead of other ways of recording your clinical conversation as the app has been developed in line with all of AHS best practices for audio recording of clinical consultations.
• Tell you when to start the recording, as some of the clinical conversation is more about their understanding of your experience. Capturing the part of the conversation where they are sharing key information about your diagnosis, treatment options and/or side effect management is the most valuable. This will also help keep the size of your audio file smaller for sharing and saving.
• Make a note in your clinical chart that you have made a recording of the conversation.
• Document the content discussed as usual in your chart as this is the legal record of care

What About Privacy, Legal and Security?

The app has undergone testing with patients, patient advisors and physicians. The audio recordings created within the app are the sole property of you, the patient.AHS does not retain a copy of any recordings created within the app.

It is against AHS policy to record in public areas of AHS facilities. You will be asked to wait until you are in a private clinic room and inform the care team you are going to record before you start your audio recording.

Patients can choose to share their audio files with family members and trusted individuals who were unable to attend the clinical consult visit, and did not hear the discussion first hand.The app also has several additional security features to protect recordings and to remind users to not make recordings in public spaces or share recordings on social media.

The app can be downloaded to your smart phone from Google Play or the App Store

• My Care Conversations Smartphone App Frequently Asked Questions