title: Spontaneous comments from users of the AIDA interactive educational diabetes simulator.
abstract: The user experience with the AIDA simulator demonstrates one of the advantages of making such diabetes software readily available for free via the Internet. The comments collectively provide a picture of some of the many and varied ways in which the simulator has been applied by different users. These comments also demonstrate the potential for empowerment that some people feel can result from the use of the software. The experience with this approach is sufficiently encouraging to warrant formal evaluation studies to quantify the clinical utility of such an interactive educational diabetes simulation program. For this reason, a formal survey of 200 AIDA users (patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals) from at least 15 different countries is currently ongoing, and further formal evaluation studies in the clinic setting are planned.
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging, NHLI Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney Street, London SW3 6NP, UK. www@2aida.org
authors.forename: E D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Lehmann
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards*; D012986:Software Validation; D014584:User-Computer Interface