Diabetes: Living My Best Life™: HealthMark Multimedia CD-ROM Innovation Addresses Needs of African-American Women with Diabetes
Diabetes: Living My Best Life™ combines a technology-based interface with culturally engaging content for African-American women who are working to manage type 2 diabetes. This CD-ROM is designed to support both clinical and community-based interventions with software that provides ongoing self-management education.
(PRWEB) October 21, 2005 -- Diabetes: Living My Best Life™ combines a technology-based interface with culturally engaging content for African-American women who are working to manage type 2 diabetes. This CD-ROM is designed to support both clinical and community-based interventions with software that provides ongoing self-management education.
In the last 12 years the percentage of African-Americans with diabetes has doubled from 8.9% to18.2%. African-American women are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with diabetes, and once diagnosed African-American women are more likely to experience severe complications, such as kidney failure and blindness. Diabetes with its related complications is the fourth leading cause of death in the African-American community and the fifth leading cause of death nationwide.
There is no cure for diabetes. The progression of the disease is managed through medication and changes toward a healthier lifestyle. Lifestyle modifications, such as changes in diet, weight loss, and a low-impact exercise program, can significantly reduce the complications of type 2 diabetes. However, implementing these lifestyle changes and understanding appropriate health care and medication regimens can be a challenge.
Type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic status among African-American women, with one in four African American women older than age 55 reported as having the disease. Effective approaches to meeting the challenge of self management education have not caught up with the need.
According to Gretchen Youssef, Program Director of the MedStar Diabetes Institute, “There is a real shortage of diabetes educators and we need to look at many different ways to meet the needs of a vast number of patients with type 2 diabetes.” Ms. Youssef, who is responsible for diabetes education for 30,000 patients in the Washington, D.C.-based MedStar Health System, continues, "Diabetes: Living My Best Life™ includes the psychosocial aspects of managing the disease throughout the program. It is very thorough and for me provides a cross-cultural bridge to better serve African-American women."
HealthMark Multimedia developed Diabetes: Living My Best Life™ with extensive feedback from an African-American Patient and Professional Advisory Board. Development was funded through a Small Business Innovation Research contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About Diabetes: Living My Best Life™:
Diabetes: Living My Best Life™ takes a patient-centered approach, using personal stories to illustrate improved skill in the self-management of diabetes. Four African-American women share their experiences and provide a framework for understanding the real-life challenges of monitoring blood sugar levels, planning food and nutrition, increasing exercise and physical activity, and improving medical care. The program attracts and maintains the user's attention through a colorful interface that highlights a personal change process through reflecting, coping, taking action, and succeeding in diabetes self-care.
Accompanying each story is in-depth educational content and interactive tools for practice in reading food labels, controlling portions, monitoring blood sugar, overcoming exercise barriers, understanding complications, and other essential tasks related to self-management. Computer simulations and learning activities enhance retention and encourage application through skill rehearsal and self-testing. Music, individual self-assessment, and feedback help motivate and encourage users. Printable fact sheets and follow-up questions help implement personal goals and facilitate communication with health care providers.
Initial feedback from women in Washington, DC who have used the CD-ROM has been very positive, with measurably improved knowledge of the disease. A 78 year-old who has had diabetes for a number of years noted that she hadn't known that she was supposed to call the doctor when her blood sugar was 350 [mg/dl or go to the hospital when it reached 500 [mg/dl. A woman who had been diagnosed just a year ago stated that she learned a lot that she didn’t know. Women also noted various ways that having the CD ROM enabled them to build awareness of diabetes in their family and community.
Diabetes: Living My Best Life™ is designed to be used by health professionals, diabetes educators, counselors, churches, and individuals with type 2 diabetes and their family caregivers. The institutional edition, which includes a CD-ROM for unlimited users and an instructor's Diabetes: Living My Best Life™: Guide for Diabetes Education, is now available at www.DiabetesBestLife.com.
About HealthMark Multimedia:
HealthMark Multimedia, LLC, a certified woman-owned business, combines graphics, audio, video, and text to develop award-winning interactive, user-friendly software and web sites for patient education, self-management, and decision making. HealthMark Multimedia uses an established network of medical experts, as well as patients and lay caregivers, to review and test products for accuracy, relevance, and usefulness.
For further information about the company, its products, and licensing opportunities, contact HealthMark Multimedia: 1828 L Street, NW, #250, Washington, DC 20036; Telephone: 202-265-0033; Fax: 202-448-6188. HealthMark Multimedia's homepage: www.HealthMarkMultimedia.com
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