Distance Learning for Health Education
The Interactive Distance Learning Project for elementary students in border colonias was initiated in January 2002. Under the direction of Dr. Kathleen Becan-McBride, health education programs via videoconferencing are presented by Dr. Becan-McBride and other faculty, residents, and health professional students to over 230 fifth-graders in two school districts on topics including hygiene and nutrition, diabetes, dental health, fire prevention and drug and alcohol abuse. The students are located 385 miles away in Las Milpas and Alton colonias. Due to its success, the program has initiated its sixth year of health education activities.
Seven research-based diabetes patient education videotapes (English and Spanish) for Hispanic diabetic adults were developed by the School of Nursing 13 years ago. The tapes have been distributed free to border community/migrant health centers and hospitals for these past years. In addition, the videotapes have been digitized and placed on the UTHSC-H web site for broader dissemination to patients and health care providers. These videotapes have been requested and used not only in clinics and academic settings in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but also throughout Texas and the nation. They are presently being updated due to the response for their usefulness.
The Starr County Services Project, under the direction of Dr. Craig Hanis (SPH), has led to the identification of a major gene that predisposes Mexican-Americans to adult-onset diabetes. This discovery promises earlier and better treatment. The office in Starr County, now in its 26th year in the community, continues to be a community resource facilitating health screening, education, prevention and research. The project provides 4,000 participant contacts per year for free intensive physical exams and follow ups involving glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and hypertension screening, and specialized eye exams to Mexican-Americans and their family members along the border. The Project Center is a referral center for the Texas Commission for the Blind. Those coming to be screened also become eligible for the diabetes education programs that have grown out of these efforts. These educational efforts are now being retargeted to begin primary prevention of diabetes in Starr County. In addition, this project has been important to basic research with recent funding being awarded for the most detailed studies of the genetics of diabetes and its complications among Mexican Americans to date.