Indigestion
The indigestion module is designed to teach pharmacy undergraduates about prescribing practices for indigestion. Within the tutorial section, the symptoms and particular factors of concern are highlighted, and the differences between dyspepsia and heartburn are discussed.
The student then goes on to look at the causes of indigestion (e.g. overeating, type of food, pregnancy) and possible aggravating factors (e.g. caffeine, alcohol, smoking, stress). The package then goes on to discuss the treatment for indigestion, including the avoidance of aggravating factors as well as the use of drug therapy. Finally, the student's attention is drawn to the unwanted effects of drug therapy (e.g. side -effects, interactions, contraindications).
The student then applies the information from the tutorial section in order to diagnose the case study patients. The student is invited to ask each patient certain questions, and from the answers given, he or she can then try to:

1. diagnose the cause of the patient's indigestion
2. recommend suitable medication for each patient
3. offer any further advice he or she feels is necessary.

After each choice has been made, an explanation is given as to why it was the correct or incorrect choice.

Constipation
In the tutorial section, the student first looks at the causes of constipation:


• Change in lifestyle
• Inadequate dietary fibre
• Failure to answer the call to stool
• Pregnancy
• Drug therapy
• Laxative abuse
• Reduced muscle tone
• Dehydration

and then at the associated symptoms of constipation:

• Abdominal pain
• Nausea/vomiting
• General malaise
• Alternating constipation and diarrhoea

The student then goes on to look at the treatment of constipation. The section on treatment is split into two parts. The first part looks at how changes in lifestyle and diet can help in the treatment of constipation. The second part looks at the treatment of constipation using laxatives. Stimulant, bulk, osmotic and lubricant laxatives are described.
After looking at this information, the student can then look at some case studies. In these case studies, the student is required to ask a patient about the symptoms and history of the constipation and from this information, recognise the probable cause of the constipation and thus recommend a suitable treatment for the patient.

Diarrhoea
Within the tutorial section, the student is given a definition of diarrhoea and then the symptoms (eg. severity, occurrence), associated symptoms (eg. abdominal pain, vomiting, fever) and causes of diarrhoea (eg. infection, food, inflammatory bowel syndrome) are discussed. Throughout the package, the student's attention is drawn to the particular problems that arise when children have diarrhoea.

The package then goes on to discuss the treatment of diarrhoea, and adsorbents, antimotility agents and oral rehydration salts are described along with general advice.

The student is then asked to apply this information by looking at case studies and trying to diagnose the people in the studies. In each case study, the student is asked to work out the probable cause of a personis diarrhoea and then recommend a suitable treatment to help that person.

Hardware and Software Requirements Windows Version The package is supplied on a CD-ROM Installation Disc and can be installed to a local hard disc or network drive. The minimum requirement is a PC with 100MHz Pentium processor , 8Mb of RAM and a VGA monitor capable of displaying 16-bit color (65, 536 colors) at 640 x 480 resolution. The program is 32-bit and is compatible with Windows 95, 98 and NT. Web Version The package is supplied on a CD-ROM Installation Disc for installation to a web server. The software runs on PC clients only. The minimum requirement is a 200MHz Pentium processor with 32Mb of RAM and a Super VGA monitor capable of displaying 16-bit color (65,536 colors) at 800 x 600 resolution. The program is compatible with both Netscape Navigator 4.x and Internet Explorer 4 or better and requires Java and Javascript to be enabled on browsers.