Diabetes Education Study Group

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Prof. Aldo Maldonato - September 2000

The Diabetes Education Study Group of the EASD has now entered its third decade of activity. I wish to acknowledge the long-lasting partnership with Servier International, a partnership that has existed since the foundation of the Diabetes Education Study Group in 1979. Thanks to their continued sponsorship, the DESG continues to be active and productive. In particular, I wish to thank Mr. Oliver Kirst, Dr Bartek Zmigrodzki and Dr Andrew Weekes for their enthusiastic involvement in the DESG activities.

I am especially grateful to Ms Birthe Palmvig, the Honorary Secretary, whose term expires this year, and to the other members of the Executive Committee: Dr Pesach Segal, the Vice-President; Dr Arun Baksi, the Honorary Treasurer; Dr Mikail Antsiferov; Ms Eva Maria Baumer, and Dr Alain Golay, the Director of Educational Strategies. I give my warmest thanks also to Ms Margaret Algermissen in the Rome secretariat.

Since the last General Committee meeting in Brussels, in September 1999, a DESG workshop has been held, new Teaching Letters and new Patient Education Basics for Type 2 Diabetes have been published, and the comprehensive DESG web site has been updated and fine-tuned.

ORVIETO WORKSHOP, 22-28 March, 2000
A workshop was held in Orvieto (TR), Italy, with the aim of planning a basic Curriculum in Therapeutic Patient Education for Health Care Providers, based on the indications of the WHO-Europe Working Group Report.

The workshop was entitled “Diabetes Therapeutic Education at the Primary Care Level: Planning a Basic Curriculum for Health Professionals ” and was attended by 16 members of the DESG, each with a great deal of experience in therapeutic patient education in primary care and informatics. The members came from Austria, Brazil, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and were joined by two representatives of Servier International.

The work consisted of short lectures, several activities performed by the participants, and one session of experiential learning. The topics included “Educational Needs of HCPs in Primary Care”, “The DESG Website – use, updating, and new possibilities”, “Planning a multinational inquiry on HCPs’ educational needs”, “Update on the WHO report on TPE. How HCPs are trained in TPE: analysis of existing courses”, “The Difficulty in Changing Habits and How to Overcome It”, “Experiential learning: difficulty of facing a new task”; “Active listening and the barriers to communication”, and “Planning the next DESG-Servier partnership meeting”.

As a result of the workshop, eight one-day modules were drafted for training HCPs at the primary care level in Therapeutic Patient Education. In addition, a 26-item questionnaire has been published on the DESG Website to evaluate the need of training/updating in the topics relevant to Therapeutic Patient Education, as perceived by the Health Care Providers worldwide.

The basic curriculum in TPE at the primary care level, together with the results of the inquiry, will be the object of the next DESG/Servier Partnership Workshop.

PUBLICATION AND UPDATE OF TEACHING LETTERS
Four Teaching Letters have been produced this year:
No.19 entitled ‘Therapeutic diabetes education in camp settings’ (new series);
No.20 entitled ‘The function of psycho-social support in diabetes education’ (new series);
No.21 entitled ‘Therapeutic education: what a diabetes centre should provide’ (update);
No.22 entitled ‘Planning an educational program’ (update).

The next to be published are:
No.23 entitled ‘Diabetes education and cost control: time to measure’ (new series);
No.24 entitled ‘Evaluating diabetes education’ (update);
- ‘Approaching the parents of a child with diabetes’ (update);
- ‘Use, misuse and abuse of AV aids’ (update).

These Teaching Letters have been or will be produced with the help of the current sponsor, Servier International, and all DESG members will receive copies.

They, as well as other DESG productions, are being made available for consultation and free download in the DESG Website.

PATIENT EDUCATION BASICS
This series of documents on different topics involving basic therapeutic education for type 2 diabetic patients, initiated in 1997 as the fruit of a stricter collaboration between DESG and Servier International, is being continued. Their aim is to provide easy-to-use educational tools for the Health Care Provider wishing to educate the diabetic patient, but unable to find time for a thorough systematic approach. In each of them the most essential messages are summarised and illustrated by drawings.

The Patient Education Basics issues produced this year were the following: No.11 ‘Preventing heart problems', and No.12 ‘Physical exercise: a therapy for diabetes at all ages’.

This year, two more Patient Education Basics will be produced: No.13 'Intercurrent diseases: a challenge for diabetes control’, and one entitled ‘Preventing diabetes in your relatives’.

These documents are also being made available for consultation and free download in the DESG Website.

DESG WEBSITE
The DESG Website (http://www.desg.org), created by a DESG working group, and officially opened on September 1st, 1999, has completed its first year of activity.

As announced during last year’s report, both the General Committee members' list and the complete list of members are in a restricted area of the site, accessible to members only. The members' area may eventually allow for internal exchanges and communications. As an example, a set of slides - “Old and new attitudes in doctor/patient relationship” - has been put in this area and can be downloaded as a PowerPoint file.

The majority of the site, however, is open and offers a source of information, publications, education tools, and a variety of materials produced either by the DESG or by others in the field of therapeutic patient education.

In particular, the DESG Teaching Letters, 5-minute survival kit, and Patient Education Basics are regularly published in the “materials” section and are made available in text and/or image format. New Teaching Letters and Patient Education Basics will keep being published in the site six months after they are available in print.

Sections yet to be implemented include a space dedicated to national study groups, the publication of the different translations of DESG documents, and a forum on TPE.

After the Orvieto workshop, a preliminary version of the questionnaire on the educational needs of HCPs was tested on the web. The trial allowed us to polish the questionnaire, and the final version has now been published. The world-wide inquiry can start. To access the 26-item questionnaire, health care providers will need a username and password which will be made easily available through Servier representatives world-wide, through DESG members, and hopefully also through the national Diabetes Education Study Groups. The inquiry should be completed by January 2001.

UPDATED LIST OF MEMBERS
The updated list consists of 656 members from 67 countries. This list is available in the members’ area of the DESG Website, as well as the list of the General Committee members.

For reasons of privacy, only the names and contact information of the current Executive Committee members are in the open part of the Website.

PARTICIPATION IN GRIMENTZ WORKSHOPS
Grimentz Seminars continue to represent a unique model for the interactive learning of educational skills. The DESG once again this year provided the funding for a few members’ participation in two workshops held in Grimentz from 17- 22 June, and 24-29 June 2000. The workshops were organised by Dr Alain Golay and Prof. Jean-Philippe Assal, respectively.

The first seminar was entitled ‘Patients obèses, diabétiques et troubles du comportement alimentaire’. The participants included 50 doctors, nurses, psychologists, pedagogues, dieticians, etc. Three participants’ expenses were covered by the DESG.

The second seminar was entitled ‘Routine, monotonie et répétition ou suivi dynamique et intégré’. The participants included 70 health care providers. The DESG again covered the expenses of three participants.

PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL WORKSHOPS
National Workshop in Israel
A workshop based on the DESG model was held at Zichron-Yaacov, 11-13 April 2000. It was entitled “Therapeutic education of diabetic patients in Israel” and was attended by 45 doctors nurses and dieticians from different Hospitals in Israel. The local organisers were Prof. Pesach Segal, Dr Ilana Harman-Boehm and DR Joelle Singer, and the planning and the implementation were made in collaboration with the Rome group. The funding was provided by Eli Lilly Israel.

National workshop in Macedonia
A workshop based on the DESG model was held in Skopje, 28-29 June 2000. The title was “Therapeutic Education of Diabetic Patients in Macedonia”, and the participants were 45 HCPs coming from several districts of Macedonia. It was organised on the initiative WHO Europe and with the funds of The Macedonian WHO Liaison Office and Humanitarian Assistance Office. The planning was the responsibility of the Rome group and the implementation was done in collaboration with Dr Sadikario’s Endocrinology team.

SPONSORSHIP OF THE DESG
The generous sponsorship of Les Laboratoires Servier has been confirmed for the next year and continues to be of utmost importance to this Study Group. In addition to the already mentioned Servier team, which is so actively collaborating in the DESG activities, I wish to thank particularly Dr Jean-Philippe Seta, Chief of the Executive Office, Dr Laurence Alliot, Director of the Medical Affairs Department and Dr Didier Halimi, Director of the Scientific Communication Department.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES
New Desg-Servier Partnership Workshop
As a follow-up to the Orvieto workshop, a new DESG/Servier partnership workshop will be held in order to define a detailed program for training primary care professionals in the education of type 2 diabetic patients at the primary care level.

This workshop will take place in Italy in March 2001 and its aim will be to present the DESG basic curriculum drafted in Orvieto, consisting of eight one-day modules. In addition, the results of the multinational inquiry on the educational needs of HCPs will be shown and discussed.

Based on the needs expressed by the HCPs, and the modular structure proposed by the DESG, it will hopefully be possible to plan basic curricula in TPE, lasting six-eight days, to be implemented in different ways and in different places according to local convenience.

One of the main activities in the future will be to improve the DESG Website, making it more and more a functional tool of education and communication for the health care providers involved in diabetes therapeutic education.

The continuation of workshops based on the DESG model will be promoted at the national level, with the possible participation of the DESG Executive Committee members.

New Teaching Letters and Patient Education Basics will be published and distributed.

Prof. Aldo MALDONATO
President, Diabetes Education Study Group
September, 2000