British Diabetic Association Review of the AIDA v4 Diabetes Software Simulator Program

Abstract

AIDA is a diabetes-computing program freely available from www.2aida.org on the Web. The software is intended to serve as an educational support tool, and can be used by anyone who has an interest in diabetes, whether they be patients, relatives, health-care professionals, or students. In 1996, during the beta-testing phase of the AIDA v4 project, the British Diabetic Association (BDA)-now called Diabetes UK-was approached and offered the AIDA software by the author, without charge, as a noncommercial contribution to continuing diabetes education. The BDA undertook their own independent assessment of the program, which involved distributing AIDA to a panel of potential end-users (health-care professionals and patients). Comments were solicited regarding the utility, clarity, and perceived safety of the software from users outside the BDA, as well as from various internal assessors. As a result of the feedback, a decision was taken by the BDA to offer AIDA to health-care professionals through the BDA's health-care professional brochure. One thousand copies of the software were produced on diskette, and 1,000 copies of the BDA's version of the program's user guide-printed as a small book-were made available for distribution by post. In this Diabetes Information Technology & WebWatch column an overview is given of the anonymous feedback provided to the BDA by some of the external evaluators. Looking back, nearly 8 years after the launch of AIDA, it is interesting to review some of the comments received and compare these with what has actually happened with the software. To date over 400,000 visits have been logged at the AIDA Web pages, and over 80,000 copies of the program have been downloaded free-of-charge. It is highlighted that this widespread downloading of, and interest in, the AIDA software seems to largely have been fuelled by the program's free availability on the Internet. The use of the World Wide Web to enhance the distribution of other medical (diabetes) programs is highlighted.

Dynamic Interactive Educational Diabetes Simulations Using the World Wide Web: An Experience of More Than 15 Years with AIDA Online

“…Dr. Eldon D. Lehmann acknowledges the warm and close collegial collaboration in earlier years with Dr. Tibor Deutsch (originally from the Computer Centre, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, and more recently at the Department of Medical Imaging and Instrumentation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary) that led to the codevelopment, testing, initial distribution, and enhancement of the original PC AIDA v4 model [ 1 – 3 , 13 – 15 , 42 , 43 , 55 – 58 ]. Dennis K. DeWolf, Christopher A. Novotny, and Robert R. Gotwals acknowledge the kind oversight and support of the following in the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Senior Design Project (SDP) which forms part of the work described in this paper: Dr. Susan M. Blanchard-SDP Organiser in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE), NCSU, NC 27695, USA; Professor Roger P. Rohrbach, Head of the BAE Department at NCSU; and Dr. Robert M. Panoff, President and Executive Director, Shodor Education Foundation, Durham, NC 27701, USA.…”

“…AIDA v4 permits the effects of insulin dosage and dietary adjustments to be simulated for a typical patient's BG profile, with the working hypothesis being that patients, relatives, students and health-care professionals (HCPs) should be able to experience metabolic adjustments without risk of hypoglycaemia. AIDA v4 also incorporates a knowledge-based system that can suggest changes in insulin dose for users unsure about what to simulate next [ 2 , 3 ].…”

Incorporating a Generic Model of Subcutaneous Insulin Absorption into the AIDA v4 Diabetes Simulator

“…9 Nevertheless, a large number of requests have been received over this period arising from developments in medical technologies (e.g., insulin analogues, new oral hypoglycemic agents), as well as computer developments (e.g., 32/64-bit Windows operating systems and graphical user interfaces). 10,11 It is important to stress that the major need is not just about creating a Windows version of the program with a more user-friendly graphical user interface instead of the current DOS version, but that important enhancements in content also need to be considered to address some of the recently reported requests received from an n = 200 survey of AIDA users. 12 Such desired enhancements include, for example, the provision of oral hypoglycemic agents, proper inclusion of diurnal variations, and adding new insulin analogues to the program in order to permit the simulation of any insulin management regimen currently used in clinical practice.…”