Patient Education: the Expert Patient

If you are involved in patient education, working with those newly diagnosed with asthma, diabetes or heart disease, our programmes are an effective tool you can use. Delivering information in bite size chunks, in an easy to use way, makes patient's learning fun. Hearing from real people in video clip format, about how they manage their disease, brings peace of mind and acceptance. Experimenting with interactive activities such as food shopping for a diabetes diet teaches patients through experience - thereby having a deeper and more long-lasting effect on the choices they make to maintain their health.

Benefits to patients & health care professionals Benefits of multimedia Does it work? Using multimedia in the care programme

• Enables health professionals and patients to access just the information they need thus avoiding information overload.
• Offers information as video, text or graphics enabling more efficient and effective communication of essential information
• Provides activities enabling people to learn from the choices they have made. Learning "by discovery" promotes better understanding and longer retention of information.
• Provides consistent quality of information and helps to ensure the efficient use of health professionals time
• "Discovery" improves levels of motivation encouraging patients to play their part in managing their health.

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• enables people to access just the information they need
• offers information as video, text or graphics
• provides activities enabling people to learn from the choices they have made
• provides consistent quality levels of information assisting the efficient use of health professionals time
• improves levels of understanding and motivation

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Does it work?

The first programme to be produced was Learning Diabetes. It is now in use in over 80 diabetes clinics and GP surgeries in the UK plus sites in Australia, Belgium, Iraq, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and the West Indies.

The programme model (also used by all the other programmes) was evaluated through a 2 year research study funded by the British Diabetes Association. The findings of the study were that there was significant improvement in knowledge acquisition and an improvement in self-management. The overall acceptance rating of the programme by patients was high with 82% of insulin treated and 87% of non-insulin treated patients finding the programme quite or very useful. Patients of all ages showed that 74% of insulin treated and 78% of non-insulin treated found the manipulation and use of the programme quite or very easy.

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Using Multimedia in the care programme

These CD-ROM programmes can be used with individuals or small groups to enable patients to learn more about their condition and the way others have managed it.

It can be accessed through standard multimedia computers situated in waiting areas or designated educational areas. It can also be used with portable laptops, or with touch screen monitors. Some practices loan out the programmes.

Provision of access to these programmes enables patients to continuously refresh and improve their knowledge thus saving the time of busy health professionals.

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