Designing patient education with distance learning

Background: Self-management is crucial for patients with chronic diseases. The development of an online learning platform, incorporating a knowledge-driven decision support system, could increase the level of self-management by tailoring education to the patient needs. This leads to better patient understanding and increasing awareness of the importance of self-management. Objective: Describing the needs and requirements of type 2 diabetics for the development of an education platform. The study tried to analyse whether patients like to use a full knowledge driven decision support platform over classic patient centric education. Methods: A qualitative approach for this study used 6 participants, aged 30 to 65 years old. They were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes not earlier than 6 months ago and had no further secondary diabetic complications. They participated in an interview on the several topics related to diabetes. The interview was based on using Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME). The interview contained both structured and unstructured questions, and was performed with a high-level of involvement to let participants provide consistent information throughout the data-collection. Results: Participants preferred to receive education that is changing to their needs. The incorporation of multimedia was highly recommended, and the method of receiving education was recommended to change per subject. Overall, patient-centric learning was preferred, but knowledge driven learning was welcomed as an addition to some subjects. Conclusion: The education offered is limited to providing basic understanding of self-management. Participants felt the need for follow-up education, but could not be provided with this. The proposed platform, with possibilities to access knowledge whenever the patients needed, was seen as a welcoming addition to the current education. Using patient-centric learning, combined with the integration of knowledge driven decision support, could significantly increase self-management among diabetics.