About the Course

Diabetes is one of the most chronic non communicable diseases and has become a major epidemic affecting society at large.Diabetes dramatically increases the risk for a wide variety of complications Retinopathy,Nephropathy,Neuropathy and Cardiovascular disease which if undetected can have a devastating impact on quality of life and place a substantial burden on health care of our nation. As per the IDF 2017 it is estimated that there are currently 425 million people with diabetes world wide and this number is set to increase to 629 million by the year 2045. Also, 1 in 6 live births is affected by Hyperglycemia in pregnancy.

There are thousands of general practitioners across the country in small towns and  big cities as well, who find it hard to take time off their busy practice or workplace schedules, to travel long distances to pursue a structured on-site workshop/course at a tertiary-care venue, in order to upgrade and update their clinical competence.

In this scenario, a pedagogically-grounded schematically-designed long course which is accessible online, is a promising solution; which incorporates the best features drawn from successful forerunners in on-campus and distant education.

Addressing the Felt need

The One year fellowship Course in Diabetes mellitus has been developed to cater to just felt need.

The course focuses on building the knowledge of primary care physicians and enhancing their skills; not merely awarding certificates. Given the busy schedules of practitioners and high drop-out rates in distance and online education, the course is so structured and the content so developed as to keep it self-motivating, comfortably paced and practice-relevant, thus sustaining student interest throughout until successful completion of the learning.

Incorporating contributions from allied speciality subjects such as cardiology, nephrology, neurology, urology,obstetrics, anesthesiology, dentistry, this Course empowers primary care physicians with knowledge and enhances their skills so as to successfully identify, classify and  manage early, common, mild and uncomplicated diabetes-related morbidity of patients, within their own clinical practice setting: to resolve more and refer less.

 Objectives of the Program

The objective of this focused learning is to empower, enrich and upgrade general physicians (who come from diverse rural to semi-urban back grounds): with the latest subject material, with clinical expertise and skills, with practice guidelines and procedures; and guidance in dealing effectively with all kinds of Diabetes presentations and complications. At the end of the Course the learner will be able to :

*Screen for and Diagnose pre-diabetes and diabetes in the early stages.

*Treat the disease with professional competence so as to prevent and retard its progression and complications.

*Educate and counsel patient & family on prevention of Diabetes and its progression.

PEDAGOGY

The learners’ profile requires the content to flow in an intuitive way so any general physician with a minimal computer knowledge can negotiate the Course with ease.

Our curriculum design is therefore matched to a third-world practice context, yet incorporating evidence-based medical practice norms set to global standards.

COURSE DESIGN: Blended Learning

Online component provides conceptual framework and theoretical basis of the specialty subject i.e. Diabetes Mellitus, through audio-visual lessons.The Course Director collates the learning modules from various faculty contributors, sequencing the topics in a logical and user-friendly flow, matching with the interspersed clinical/skill posting to arrive at an optimum curriculum design.

Domain skills are rendered by observation and hands-on experience which are acquired in a blended mode. Learners practice clinical skills at their work place by accessing online the provided standardized A-V clinical material. They would also be posted in Diabetes health care facilities for a stipulated period of time (every weekend once in two months/ two weeks at the end of the course) for learning those skills under the tutelage of that empanelled patient service.

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The Targetted Learner Group

Qualified (MBBS) General Physicians [who, due to various reasons, social,economic or personal, could not pursue higher education and have no choice but to practice with the base knowledge gained in their medical college years ago] with little access to update of subject matter, clinical skills, procedures or guidelines.

Course Syllabus

FDM course is of one year duration: two semesters of 6 months duration each. Each semester has 25 chapters on various topics, and 9 clinical case studies. Content runs to 2 to 3 hours of directed learning (lectures/lessons) per week.

Course Delivery Format

A rich multi-modality learning environment is provided via the SmarTeach platform:

*Online lectures/lessons delivered by experts in respective fields. The students can view each presentation any number of times using tools to conveniently play/pause, forward/rewind, skip/review, bookmark and add own notes for later review.

(Included in these lessons are many text slides, illustrations, animations, audios/videos– to render concepts easy to understand, and data difficult to forget)

*Reading material including prescribed Text book.

*Monthly self-assessment through multiple choice type objective tests (from a large question bank database); serving also as evaluation exams for evidence of learning

*Case-log-book: 10 total case descriptions compiled during each candidate’s compulsory clinical rotation under the guidance of in-house clinician ; submitted online in prescribed format to allow rapid processing and evaluation

Evaluation Design

FDM follows a set pattern of formative and summative assessment, with quantitative and qualitative components. All assessments are evaluated by experienced faculty.

*MGA -monthly graded assessments comprise a predetermined number of multiple choice questions to be answered in a stipulated period of time.

These are one-time graded assessments, can not be reattempted for a better score. The scores carry considerable weightage toward formative Theory assessment.

*Two semester end assessments (MCQ format)

*Log-book submissions of clinical cases studied:2 cases for each clinical rotation.

*Final exam [end of course] comprising theory (MCQ format) and practicals.

Certification

After the successful completion of the course, the candidate shall be issued a Fellow ship in Diabetes Mellitus certificate

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Suggested Reading

• RSSDI Handbook of Diabetes by Banerjee S