Project HOPE E-Learning Program Battles Diabetes Online on World Diabetes Day
Project HOPE's online diabetes learning program is poised to give thousands of allied health professionals in India skills to stem the advance of diabetes.
International Diabetes Educator E-Learning Program Receives Official Recognition by International Diabetes Federation
On World Diabetes Day, the global NGO Project HOPE says its groundbreaking, self-paced, online diabetes learning program is poised to give thousands of allied health professionals in India skills and strategies to stem the advance of the disease and announced it will launch a Spanish version of the course early next year.
IDEEL, the International Diabetes Educator E-Learning Program, builds on the Virginia-based NGO’s already wide-ranging work tackling diabetes. The IDEEL course has been recognized by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). IDF estimates that, without intervention, more than 552 million people will have the disease by 2030. Approximately 80 percent of the 4.8 million people who die from diabetes each year are in the developing world, and half of the people who die from diabetes are under the age of 60.
“Diabetes educators are crucial to reaching communities still unfamiliar with how to recognize, treat and prevent the disease. We are dealing with a public health crisis in the developed and now the rapidly urbanizing developing world where millions have diabetes and millions more are not even diagnosed – approximately 50 percent. Millions more are at risk of developing diabetes, putting businesses, communities, families and health systems at risk of major productivity, financial and resource crises,” said Paul Madden, M.Ed., HOPE’s Senior Advisor for Non-Communicable Diseases.
To tackle this public health crisis, Project HOPE, a global health education and humanitarian assistance organization, partnered with the Cornerstone OnDemand Foundation and the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd. to launch IDEEL in October. IDEEL is an adaptation of HOPE’s award-winning India Diabetes Educator Project (IDEP), which trained 3,621 health professionals, including nurses, nutritionists and physical therapists to encourage healthy lifestyles and to work with physicians to provide education and counseling support to diabetics and their associated communities.
IDEEL is a four-month, self-paced online learning program/curricula that can be accessed from anywhere. The program is enhanced by a two-week internship under the guidance of an endocrinologist and his team. Once the student has successfully completed the online course and internship, he/she will be significantly more qualified as a diabetes educator working with physicians to empower patients to balance their diabetes and realize more robust health and productive lives.
The IDEEL program aims to
- Train up to 4,500 educators annually in India
- Train 100,000 educators worldwide by 2018
- Create a sustainable means of tackling diabetes through education and raising awareness
“We believe IDEEL will be efficient and effective in reaching the scale required to address the chronic problem of diabetes, which is estimated to be 8.3 percent of the population in India and is estimated to increase to 10 percent by 2030. The cost to treat a patient with diabetes in India ranges between $147-$227 per year, and the average per capita income was $1100 in 2006. This creates a significant barrier for patients to seek medical treatment, let alone follow medical advice,” said Cheena Malhotra, Senior Program Officer at Project HOPE in India.
HOPE will launch a culturally relevant Spanish version of IDEEL, in which, like those in India, allied health professionals in Spanish-speaking communities will be trained in diabetes self-management education (DSME) and will be able to help their patients improve blood sugar levels, cholesterol and weight to realize the healthiest of lives.
Project HOPE’s diabetes work began in 1998 in China, where HOPE is the only U.S. NGO administering a diabetes education program. The HOPE Centre in South Africa is a partnership with Eli Lilly and Company, and works with local NGOs, government and academic stakeholders to address the needs of patients at risk of living with diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases.
World Diabetes Day (WDD) is celebrated every year on November 14. The WDD campaign is led by IDF and its member associations. It engages millions of people worldwide in diabetes advocacy and awareness.
About Project HOPE
Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health problems with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now provides medical training and health education, and conducts humanitarian assistance programs in more than 35 countries. Visit our website projecthope.org and follow us on Twitter @projecthopeorg.