Diabetes Education Study Group

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Prof. Jean-Philippe Assal, August 1994

I should firstly like to thank Novo Nordisk for their continuing support of our Study Group without whom our activities would not take place. I should also like to address my thanks to Mrs. Lisbeth Vang for her continuing activity as Honorary Secretary of the DESG as well as Prof. Urban Rosenqvist, Vice-President, Dr. Valerio Miselli, Treasurer and to Mrs. Melodie Käser who runs the Geneva secretariat.

This period has been a very intense one culminating in the international congress on patient education in Geneva, Switzerland, entitled 'PATIENT EDUCATION 2000', which we hope will have a far reaching effect worldwide.

Following on from our workshop held in June 1993, the activities listed below were carried out.

1. DESG Workshop, 14-17 October, 1993, Romanmôtier, Switzerland
The Diabetes Education Study Group, thanks to the support of Novo Nordisk, has continued its activities during this period by holding a workshop, with selected participants, in the Swiss village of Romanmôtier. The 21 participants, all having an especially important experience in patient education, came from 14 different European countries. These professionals have given a total of almost 127,000 hours of teaching to patients, thus representing an average of 6,047 hours per teacher. They have followed a total of 11,325 patients per year (an average of 539 patients each per year).

This workshop was a result of the activities carried out in the previous workshop held in Grimentz, from 20-25 June 1993. Its sole aim was to produce a 'Survival kit' for both general practitioners and their diabetic patients. The ten topics covered were: Prevention of hypoglycemia, Important rules when you are ill, Meal planning for Type I diabetes, Meal planning for Type II diabetes, Weight loss for Type II diabetes, Long Term
Complications: a) prevention of foot lesions; b) loss of pain sensation; c) follow-up of eye problems, Diabetes & Pregnancy, 5-Minute Education - what strategies? During those three days, the participants worked in small groups of four. Each group produced, discussed, edited and finalised two, one-page 'survival kit' handouts on their given topics.

One handout for the general practitioner and the other for the patient. We now have the final version of these topics and they will shortly be published.

2. PATIENT EDUCATION 2000
An international Congress on the Treatment of Chronic Diseases
1-4 June, 1994 - Geneva, Switzerland
This international congress had a total of 850 participants coming from 47 different countries. lt was held under the co-sponsorship of the Geneva Medical School and the World Health Organization, with financial sponsorship coming from the major pharmaceutical companies. Novo Nordisk was one of the major sponsors. Nine chronic diseases, or conditions, were discussed in depth, by way of either state-of-the-art lectures, Meet the Expert sessions, Short Communications, a Poster Exhibition and a unique Educational Demonstration area where participants, having had their abstracts accepted, were given a booth in which to demonstrate their particular educational tool, ranging from videos to books to manual appliances. Those diseases and conditions were:
Arterial Hypertension, Autonomous Dialysis, Back Pain, Bronchial Asthma, Diabetes Mellitus, Epilepsy, Parkinson's Disease, Colostomy and Laryngectomy.

A total of 370 accepted abstracts were published as a supplement to Vol. 23, the June 1994 edition of 'Patient Education and Counseling'. The manuscripts of the main lectures will subsequently be published by Elsevier Publishers as the Proceedings of this congress in the International Congress Series. This will then be distributed to all governments which it is hoped in turn will bring patient education to the fore as a worthy means of therapy.

Members of the DESG may obtain a copy of the order form for the Special Prepublication Offer for those Proceedings from the secretariat of the DESG chairman.

Under the DESG budget for this period, free registrations were offered to participants coming from the eastern European countries having had their abstracts accepted under the topic of diabetes.

3. DESG Workshop, 8-13 October, Grimentz, Switzerland
This year's workshop will be held from 8-13 October, in the alpine village of Grimentz in Switzerland. It will provide participants with detailed knowledge of the 'Survival Kit' and special attention will be given to the proper skills on how to use this tool. Another aim of this meeting will be to teach the participants how to organize and run interactive workshops, critically approach some educational methodologies which may help patients to learn the appropriate skills in order to better manage their disease.

At the present time we foresee having approximately 30-35 participants coming from 17 different European countries. These will be Albania, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. Certain participants approached in the eastern European countries did not, or were not able to accept our invitation.

As before, this workshop will also cover such topics as round-table discussions on training health care providers and small group discussions on using the 'Metaplan' type approach.

At this meeting an official introduction of the 'DiabTrain' will be made by Dr. Jan Tehran and Prof. Urban Rosenqvist of Sweden.

4. DESG Teaching Letter and the 'DiabTrain'
A Teaching Letter entitled: 'THE PATIENT'S TASK - NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN
DIABETES EDUCATION - From classical to holistic approach' has now been written
together with Prof. Urban Rosenqvist, Dr. Jan Theman and myself. This will shortly be
distributed to all DESG members.

The 'DiabTrain' is a demonstration mode which should help health care providers to understand in an easier way concepts such as:
- how does one learn?
- what is the role of a teacher who has to help a person to acquire new skills?

The educational background of the 'DiabTrain' is described in the Teaching Letter.

5. Future sponsorship of the DESG for 1995-1997
Dr. Assal has been able to find a further financial coverage for the DESG for the period
1995-1997. Les Laboratoires Servier have most generously accepted to cover this Study
Group. May we thank the directors Dr. Jean-Philippe Seta and Dr. Didier Halimi for their understanding and their support.

I would like to end this report by once again thanking Novo Nordisk for their most important sponsorship of the DESG over these past years, and in particular, Mrs. Susanne Hayes for her support.

Prof. Jean-Philippe ASSAL
President, Diabetes Education Study Group
August, 1994