Saturday, October 29, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
PATIENTS (PATIent adherence Educational iNTeractive Server) is a flash-based program intended to provide the user with knowledge of thyroid biology – from the basics of hormone secretion to specifics of types of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism – and a practical method of simulating different treatments and monitoring the effects on hormone levels. The program is to be integrated with a thyroid simulator that allows manipulation of various parameters to graphically display hormone levels achieved when a patient takes or misses or doubles his/her daily prescribed dose. Based on the user’s thyroidal condition, the simulator can plot the changes in hormone level(s) over a period of time, specified by the user, and compare that to the normal ranges for the hormone(s). PATIENTS was designed using Adobe Flash, rendering an interactive multimedia interface that is user-friendly. The thyroid simulator was compiled using Python, and uses various libraries to execute the necessary differential equations for the model. As a package, the two programs are extensive in their applications, as there are currently no programs of the type to service the non-professional population. Compatible with Flash-equipped machines, the online programs provide users with biological facts and graphical representations of varying hormone-supplementation treatments. Once validated as applicable to human thyroid hormone behavior, the simulator can be used to model the effects of alternative hormone treatments for hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, or thyroid cancer patients.