E-learning tool for patients
We are happy to announce that our Celiac disease e-learning tool has been published and is ready, to challenge your knowledge about Celiac disease and teach you everything about it in a fun way. So far, the e-tool is available in English, German and Hungarian language and is primarily dedicated to patients and their family members, but everyone is welcome to try it out and learn more about Celiac disease and life with it. Slovenian, Italian and Croatian version will be available soon.
The tool is built out of four different units which are all representing an important part of the complete understanding of Celiac disease. Patients can learn important general information about the disease, its diagnosis and treatment, as well as everyday life and changes that it brings to it. The more we know about Celiac disease, the easier it is for us to adapt and maintain the new lifestyle. And the more we talk about it and share information with people other than the patients, the more the environment is changing for more positive toward those with the disease.
Each of the four units is built of several lessons, at the beginning and the end of which, there is a test to see how much your knowledge improves with the help of our tool.
The first unit is called “Understanding Celiac Disease” and it helps answer questions such as what gluten is and why it is so common in our food, how many people actually have celiac disease, why some people get celiac disease and why some never do and why is gluten-free diet still the only, but very effective, treatment.
During the second unit called “Diagnosing Celiac Disease”, patients can learn more about the procedures that are required to reach a diagnosis for celiac disease. They are taught how to interpret the results of such analyses and told what other wheat or gluten related symptoms exist that are not due to celiac disease.
The third unit called “Treatment of Celiac Disease” is dedicated to teaching the patients about the only available treatment for celiac disease – a strict and lifelong gluten-free diet. Throughout the lessons, patients learn what they can and what they should not eat, how they can properly read food labels to avoid consumption of gluten and how healthy gluten- free diet actually is. After completing the unit, the patients should have a good enough understanding of the way to approach the new diet, to be able to play the game, during which they have to pick the groceries that should always be gluten free and put them in their virtual shopping cart. They also learn how to order gluten-free food in many different languages.
During the last, fourth unit that’s titled “Living with Celiac Disease”, patients are able to learn about coping with their new diagnosis and find out who they can reach out to if they need any support. They also learn how to manage and monitor celiac disease.
The e-tool ends with a fun game that tests patients’ knowledge of popular beliefs about Celiac disease that they have to decide are a myth or reality.
We hope our innovative and interactive e-tool will be used by as many patients as possible, because it is important to understand, that as a patient you cannot only rely on the health professionals but have to be an active participant in preventing the long-term health consequences and should monitor the disease. Being diagnosed with a chronic disease requires a lot of adjustments, but it shouldn’t take over a patient’s life. It is important for the patient to find his own way of dealing with the new diagnosis but learning about celiac disease is considered one of the helpful mechanisms for every patient! This is how we hope this e-tool will contribute to patients’ easier adaptation to the new lifestyle.
