Programme

Background: Insufficient and inefficient training for carers of elderly, both formal and informal, imposes significant costs to the healthcare systems of first world countries. Modern lifestyle and adult obligations of this target group, make ordinary teaching methods counterproductive to the point of non-applicable. Scenario based learning has emerged as a valid form of self-directed self-paced education, in formal and informal context. Virtual Environments have, on the other hand, been established as experiential platforms for delivering serious purpose and recreational content. Objective: This work aims to provide a first qualitative assessment of the user perceptions and impressions of deploying an elderly care virtual scenario deployed in the OpenSim Virtual Environment. Methods: 10 formal and informal carers (7 informal, 3 formal) mostly female (8 female, 2 male) experienced a training virtual scenario in OpenSim. The scenario involved the care actions necessary for an elderly male recent widower with pre-existing chronic health issues, moving in with his daughter and facing psychological and cognitive decline. Qualitative assessment was conducted through short, loosely structured interviews that were conducted immediately after the participants have experienced the scenario. Results: The participants identified the following advantages: immediacy of the environment increasing learning impact; relaxed pace of the experience allowing easier absorption of the material, as well as allowing to learn in a controlled environment without stressful time sensitive decisions. Areas of improvement included: the need for even more immersive presentation, such as audio narrative instead of textual feedback, more complex scenarios, with more visual cues for the user’s actions, as well as more open ended interaction with the virtual case. Conclusions: The users viewed the implementation of the virtual scenario in the OpenSim 3D virtual environment in a very positive light demonstrating a fertile ground for further enriching and developing this educational modality as a carer training tool.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is increasing worldwide especially in developing countries like Iran as a consequence of urbanization also use of the Internet and mobile service are increasing as well. The independent use of Internet and mobile technologies by the patients is a key step towards self-care management of the disease. Summary of work: A validated questionnaire used to collect data from patients and calculated face and content validity and reliability. The questionnaires were completed between July and September 2013 by patients between 20 to 60 years of age who come to two diabetic clinics for routine checkup. The questionnaire had two parts; the first part consisted of 16 items collecting demographics information. If the patients answered that they used the internet on a routine basis they were asked then to complete the second part. The second part of the questionnaire contained 26 items about the specific use of the Internet and mobile service to access information and one open question on the same issue. Summary of results: 407 questionnaires were completed by patients with DM. 108 (26, 5%) had routine access to Internet. Of all patients who had access to Internet 95, 4 % had routine access to mobile services; 92, 6% sent and received SMS and 77, 8 % were positive to the use of Persian website for medical information. Discussion and Conclusion: Most diabetic patients in this study were willing to receive educational material by the Internet and preferred to use a Farsi website. Take-home massage: Patients with DM can be reached with Internet and mobile learning services that can help improve the patients’ self-care management of the disease.