Research indicates that traditional methods of diabetes education has had limited effectiveness with minority populations and suggest that different educational approaches can be explored [1]. In this sense, there are many technologies currently being used in diabetes education, including podcasts [2-4]. A podcast is essentially a radio show recorded on extensions MP3, OGG or MP4, digital formats that allow you to store audio files in a small space, so you can listen any time you want. You have two options: you can listen to a podcast through a website (this is called streaming), or you can download a podcast, which means you’re saving it on your phone, or tablet, or computer, and you can listen to it anytime, even without an internet connection [1,3].

A recent study tested the use of educational technology in the form of podcasts, continuously available through common web sites, demonstrating how a nurse preceptor could constructively approach difficult situation susing caring behaviors to engage novice nurses and to examine the relationship between preceptor suppotand role commitment. Researchers found a strong benefical correlation to use of podcasts for ongoing educational support [5]. In other study, African men with diabetes mellitus (DM) used podcasts and the results showed that this feature is useful for storing information about DM prevention [1].

There are health-related podcasts available in the internet for healthcare professionals as well as for and the general public, including the Arizona Heart Institute, the Cleveland Clinic, McGraw-Hill’s Access Medicine podcasts, John Hopkins Medicine Podcasts [6], and Brazilian Diabetes Society [7]. With the purpose of to explore the effectiveness of an emergent technology (Podcast) for use in educating about diabetes, the Project Diabetes Diamantina created a series of radio program sand podcasts entitled “Em sintonia com o diabetes” (In tune with diabetes). The Em sintonia com o diabetes present stips for common problems faced by patients with DM.

The podcast are recorded on a Campus Radio (99.7 FM) and feature information about several subjects of DM. For the preparation of each podcast, first a literature review was made to choose the theme based on the Guidelines of the Brazilian Society of Diabetes, or data of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), or new papers with updates about DM. After choosing the theme a short text was written using a language easy to understand, but without losing the scientific quality of subject addressed in the podcast. In this way we believe that it is possible to guide both patients and health professionals.

The use of technology in diabetes education should be to support learning. Diabetes educators must still focus on the principles of teaching, not on the specific technologies. The development of podcasts to educational support in diabetes can provide important results, but technologies are just one tool in the education process. Careful research are still needed in order to find the best ways to leverage the see emerging tools to boost our teaching and learning in DM.

Conflict of interest

None

Source of funding

None

References

1. Johnson J, Ross L, Iwanenko W, Schiffert J, Sen A (2012) Are podcasts effective at educating African American men about diabetes? Am J Mens Health 6: 365-367. [Ref.]
2. da Silva E, Campos LF (2016) The Potential Role of Social Media and Interactive Technologies in Diabetes Education. J Dia Res Ther 2: e103 [Ref.]
3. Barros GC, Menta E (2011) Podcast: produções de áudio para educação de forma crítica, criativa e cidadã. Revista Eptic 9. [Ref.]
4. Diegues V, Coutinho CP (2010) Educational Webradio: Production and use of Podcasts in educomunicativas experiences. [Ref.]
5. Blum CA (2014) Evaluating preceptor perception of support using educational podcasts. Int J Nurs Educ Scholarsh11: 47-54. [Ref.]
6. Boulos MN, Maramba I, Wheeler S (2006) Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ 6: 41. [Ref.]
7. (2016) Brazilian Diabetes Society.

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Article Information

Article Type: Editorial

Citation: da Silva E, Toledo MM, dos Santos Paula E, de Freitas Campos L (2016) Using Podcasts to Keep Diabetes Patients Informed. J Dia Res Ther 2(3): doi http://dx.doi.org/10.16966/2380-5544.e104

Copyright: © 2016 da Silva E, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication history: 

Received date: 23 May 2015

Accepted date: 24 May 2016

Published date: 27 May 2016