Novel educational aids for celiac disease

Moberg Research, Inc., Ambler PA

Investigators

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Celiac disease (intolerance to wheat or gluten) is perceived as rare, but in fact affects over 2 million Americans. Recent epidemiological studies have shown that it is one of the more common inherited diseases, affecting 1 out of every 133 people. However; the symptoms of celiac disease are frequently missed, and correct diagnoses are often not made until a later stage when secondary (and more severe) complications can arise. The average patient must sometimes undergo continued tests and medical visits for a decade or longer before receiving a correct diagnosis and effective dietary treatment. In order to remedy this problem, medical personnel need to be more fully educated regarding the characteristics of this disease and its true incidence. This project will develop educational aids for celiac disease in conjunction with a consortium of medical institutions, dieticians, patients, and other related personnel. A novel approach will be used to structure the information so that the difficulty of course material can be dynamically adjusted to the particular student and the courses themselves can be automatically updated with new medical content. This course adaptation is necessary since information about celiac disease is needed across a wide range of backgrounds, including physicians, dieticians, pharmacists, and patients. The educational information content will be structured as "learning objects", and will be one of the first applications of new distributed learning standards to a medical educational course. The developed course material could have a significant impact on medical care by reducing the unnecessary costs and decreased quality of life associated with the repeated misdiagnoses of patients with celiac disease. Also, the developed educational material has a large commercial potential because of the wide audience of potential learners and the expanding market in multimedia education. [unreadable] [unreadable]