HealthSims web site offers educational resource for Type I diabetes

Through a family member’s recent diagnosis with Type I diabetes, our entire family has had to come to understand a lot more about the disease. This, of course, has included gathering resources to help learn the information that we needed.

One of those resources is the
HealthSims
Web site. HealthSims is focused on education about Type I diabetes at present, but will include material about Type II later this year.

The site is a rich informational resource that includes a forum and an in-depth educational course about Type I diabetes. Dana Blankenship, whose son has Type I diabetes, is the founder of the site.

The learning material is targeted towards those who are newly diagnosed, as well as their family members, to help them learn to manage the diabetes. Additionally, it is useful for any professionals who work with diabetics, or those in fields needing continuing education. The training material is non-sequential, thus allowing the user to go to a particular area of interest or concern first, rather than having to follow a rigid design structure.

The course is thorough, running approximately 12-16 hours. The following course description is from the web site:
“The course includes the basic facts about type 1 diabetes and the common treatment strategies. You will also find lessons learned and practical tips on a wide variety of topics from over 300 people from across North America that have first hand experience managing this disease. In this exciting training course, you will hear people tell their own stories and share their personal lessons learned. You will also get the opportunity to test your own knowledge of type 1 diabetes in the practice activities embedded in the training topics as well as in the Practice Activities Topic which includes 100 questions to test your knowledge of content taught throughout the course. You can complete the training topics in any order you wish.”