Free online course on Diabetic Eye Disease

On Monday 8 October 2018, the International Centre for Eye Health and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine are running a new free online course on Diabetic eye disease with the help of its partners FutureLearn.

Understand the diabetes challenge and how health professionals can work with people with diabetes to prevent blindness.

About the course:

The number of adults with diabetes is predicted to increase by more than 50% to 642 million by 2040. Diabetic eye disease is a range of ocular complications experienced by people with diabetes. Recent global trends have found an alarming increase in the magnitude of vision loss due to diabetic retinopathy, highlighting the need to strengthen health services to prevent blindness.

In this online course, you will learn the key facts about diabetic eye disease and its management, and how health teams and people with diabetes can work together to reduce the risk of vision loss and blindness.

Duration: 4 weeks

Hours per week: 5 hours

 What are the learning objectives?

1. Classification, natural history, epidemiology and complications of diabetes mellitus and diabetic eye disease, in particular diabetic retinopathy
2. Impact of diabetic eye disease on the individual, society and health services
3. Public health and screening for diabetic eye disease: principles, guidelines and implementation models
4. Partnerships and team approach to prevent blindness from diabetic retinopathy
5. Approaches to provision of screening and grading services
6. Treatment protocols and guidelines for diabetic retinopathy in high and low resourced health systems
7. Monitoring and evaluation approaches for diabetic retinopathy screening

What will you achieve?

1. Describe the classification, natural history, epidemiology and complications of diabetes mellitus.
2. Interpret the classification, pathophysiology and epidemiology of diabetic eye disease and its impact on eye health services and society.
3. Evaluate public health strategies for the control of diabetic eye disease
4. Describe and apply the principles of screening to diabetic retinopathy
5. Explore the models for detection of diabetic retinopathy and their implications within high and low resourced health systems.
6. Evaluate guidelines for grading, screening and monitoring its implementation with the diabetic retinopathy care pathway
7. Identify the barriers and challenges experienced by people living with diabetes to manage their diabetes, and comply with screening and treatment
8. Assess treatment protocols and resources requirements for the management of Diabetic eye disease and its implementation at a programme level
9. Apply the planning tool to strengthen diabetic eye care services at a local level

Who should do this course?

• Specific: Eye health professionals, diabetologists, GPs, health service planners, diabetes nurses, diabetic eye disease screeners and graders, public health specialists, eye health programme managers and planners
• General: MoH personnel, NGO sector, diabetics and all health care personnel involved in supporting people with diabetes.

The course is taught by experts involved at many different levels of eye care services – from global and academic leadership to clinical and public health experts involved at the community level.

How does this online course work?

• Sign up for free – manage your own pace
• View videos and articles and learn from experiences shared by experts
• Participate in discussions – learn from conversations
• Test your understanding in regular quizzes
• Freely download, adapt and re-use the content for teaching and learning
• On completion – choose to upgrade and receive a Certificate of Achievement!*

REGISTER!: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/diabetic-eye-disease/1

Image Courtesy: Hanh Pham for #MakeVisionCount