Overview
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the most common causes of dementia in people under 65 and has a dramatic impact on behavior. Because of these characteristics, it is often missed or misdiagnosed as a primary psychiatric disease. Therefore, it is crucial to provide better training to psychiatrists who may see these patients during the early stages of the disease. To achieve this, we will train psychiatrists in the identification, diagnosis, and management of this disease through a multilevel educational program.
Project Details
Freia.Psy is a multilevel educational program with the objective of training psychiatrists in frontotemporal dementia in Argentina. We will create an educational program specifically tailored for psychiatrists that will involve both virtual and live activities. The virtual activities will include an online course on frontotemporal dementia and the opportunity for course participants to have didactic consultations with experts in the field to evaluate challenging cases. Live activities will include presentations at the leading psychiatry conferences in Argentina and lectures to psychiatry residents on this disease. Before beginning the virtual program, participants will be asked to complete the Frontotemporal Dementia Knowledge Scale, which will serve to measure their baseline knowledge. After completing the course, participants will be asked to complete the same scale again along with a survey asking several subjective questions.
Comparison of the results of the scale before and after completing the virtual course, along with the survey results, and the number of live presentations will serve as a measure of evaluation of the effectiveness of this multi-level educational program. Once completed, this project will have laid the foundation for building a network of expert professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia across the country, which will improve the quality of care for patients and their families. In addition, this project will strengthen the creation of the FTD unit in Argentina, allowing the creation of a registry of the disease and enabling the future development of new lines of research and participation in clinical trials.
