DocXplains is an online, video-based patient education resource developed by an experienced UK General Practitioner to improve understanding and engagement and make health journeys easier for everyone!
DocXplains explains common medical conditions using simple, colourful line-drawings which unfold over short videos, with a jargon-free voiceover.
With this approach, DocXplains aligns with the current trends in online media consumption of short-form content, video, and mobile internet use.
DocXplains’ online video library format complements the NHS Long Term Plan’s (2019) aims to increase patients’ digital access to health services and information.
DocXplains is designed to overcome the challenges of limited health literacy, thereby improving engagement with health and healthcare teams, adherence to treatment plans, and ultimately, outcomes. DocXplains is tailor-made to suit the needs of patients, and the goals of the NHS.
‘We have not fully harnessed the renewable energy represented by patients and communities’
NHS Five Year Forward View
DocXplains directly addresses needs laid out in the GP Forward View (2016) which observes:
‘…patients want to be partners in their own care. They want the knowledge, skills and confidence to take more responsibility for their health and feel more in control of their outcomes. Channelling this growing patient appetite for services that help patients to help themselves unlocks both a better patient experience and a way to alleviate practice workload. No amount of reform of the existing system will work unless we also partner with our patients to manage demand more efficiently.’
GP Forward View
Furthermore, DocXplains fulfils the ninth of the GP Forward View’s ‘Ten High Impact Actions to release capacity’: Support Self Care, which includes Prevention, Long-term conditions, and Acute episodes.
The NHS Five Year Forward View (2014) similarly highlighted the need for people to become more informed and involved in their own care:
‘many…people wish to be more informed and involved with their own care, challenging the traditional divide between patients and professionals, and offering opportunities for better health through increased prevention and supported self-care.’
NHS Five Year Forward View
The NHS Long Term Plan further develops this vision in its goal of providing more personalised care and empowering patients to better understand and manage their own health:
‘More fundamentally, with the right support, people of all ages can and want to take more control of how they manage their physical and mental well-being.’
NHS Long Term Plan
DocXplains is purpose-built to meet these ambitions laid out across the GP Forward View, the NHS Five Year Forward View, and the NHS Long Term Plan.
DocXplains does so by taking a modern, audio-visual, jargon-free, comprehensive, and above all evidence-based approach to health education.
DocXplains videos are evidence-based using the latest guidance and research. All the information presented is in accordance with current best practice in the UK. The resource is fully referenced.
DocXplains videos are developed in partnership with patients, peer-reviewed by medical practitioners and academics to ensure the accuracy, quality and the safety of the information. They are also reviewed by lay-reviewers to ensure the content is easy to understand and relevant.
‘People will be empowered, and their experience of health and care will be transformed, by the ability to access, manage and contribute to digital tools, information and services.’
NHS Long Term Plan
DocXplains requires no additional time or effort on the part of clinicians in their day-to-day practice. Rather it provides clinicians with a trustworthy resource that they can direct their patients to, confident that the clinical message will be reinforced.
The videos are only about five minutes each. The short length combined with the simple and colourful line-drawing style create a format that is easy to approach, and easy to re-watch again and again.
The site will feature visual prompts to browse related content, increasing the likelihood of a viewer clicking on a second condition that they may suffer with, or are at risk of developing.
DocXplains does not require patient attendance at a specific time or place. DocXplains is easy to access from desk, tablet or mobile platforms. This provides patients flexibility to view the videos anytime, anywhere – at home, on the go, with family or friends.
‘Even people with long term conditions, who tend to be heavy users of the health service, are likely to spend less than 1% of their time in contact with health professionals. The rest of the time they, their carers and their families manage on their own.’
NHS Five Year Forward View
DocXplains overcomes socio-economic and literacy barriers to health education and empowerment.
Free at the point of delivery and adhering to a concise, short-form format, the resource is easy on limited data tariffs.
By providing jargon-free health educational videos using simple visuals with voice-over and no text, DocXplains actively reduces health literacy barriers and contributes to narrowing disparities. This approach aligns fundamentally with the NHS Long Term Plan’s focus on reducing unequal access and improving outcomes.
DocXplains promotes health dialogue across communities and workplaces, improving awareness and recognition, while reducing the stigma, isolation, and social exclusion of long-term conditions. As videos for different conditions sit side-by-side, DocXplains promotes learning about conditions which don’t directly affect users themselves, but affect friends, family, and colleagues.
‘While the health service certainly can’t do everything that’s needed by itself, it can and should now become a more activist agent of health-related social change.’
NHS Five Year Forward View
By delivering a thorough understanding, our videos help patients develop a sense of ownership of their own health and increased confidence in engaging with their healthcare and its providers.
‘…services need to support families, carers and communities; … promoting wellbeing and independence need to be the key outcomes of care…’
NHS Five Year Forward View
DocXplains covers wide-ranging areas of disease, in a consistent and modern format. It surpasses current patient-education resources by eschewing traditional text-based formats which overlook the problems of health literacy. DocXplains improves on other resources by aligning with current trends amongst internet users toward short-form content, video, and mobile internet.
DocXplains is meticulously crafted and maintained, adhering to the highest industry standards including the NHS Digital Standards for Web Products, The NHS Standard for Creating Health Content, and the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
DocXplains is provided via 2-yearly licence purchased by the commissioners. Open access is provided to the population served by the commissioners, alongside support and materials for practices to easily demonstrate and promote the service.
For further details regarding the evidence-base, the business-case, the licence, further aspects of the service, and any other queries, please send an email to business@docxplains.com
