An online glaucoma educational course for patients to facilitate remote learning and patient empowerment

Abstract

In both face-to-face and teleophthalmology glaucoma clinics, there are significant time constraints and limited resources available to educate the patient and their carers regarding the glaucoma condition. Glaucoma patients are often not satisfied with the content and amount of information they receive and have demonstrated a substantial lack of knowledge regarding their condition. Innovative educational tools that facilitate accessible digital remote patient education can be a powerful adjunct to empower patients in becoming healthcare partners.We describe the development of a free, comprehensive, multimodal online glaucoma patient education course for adults with glaucoma, their family and friends and carers, with the aim of providing a readable resource to aid remote learning and understanding of the condition.The working group for the development of the course comprised of consultants, medical practitioners and education specialists and expert patients. Given the specialised nature of ophthalmology and glaucoma, certain aspects can be difficult to conceptualise, and, therefore, clear and adequate explanations of concepts are provided in the course using diagrams, flow charts, medical illustrations, images, videos, written text, analogies and quizzes.The course is available in a short and long version to suit different learning needs which take approximately 2 hours and 10 hours to complete respectively. The contents list allows course takers to find sections relevant to them and it can be taken anywhere, as long as there is Internet access.We invite you to share this resource with your patients and their families, friends and carers.