A portable device (20) for educating a user in diabetes management includes a display (26) presenting a user interface to provide a virtual patient (28) having diabetes and depicted as an avatar having the form of a boy or girl. A health status (30) is indicated by a bar graph (32). The user interface presents a feeding control (40) for providing food or drinks to the virtual patient； an exercise control (38) for causing the virtual patent to exercise； and a medication control for providing medication to the virtual patient. Each of the controls causing a corresponding change in the health status of the virtual patient having type-1 diabetes. An injection training application (34) is provided for teaching injection techniques. A testing training application (36) allows the user to check one or more health parameters of the virtual patient. Other applications, such as exercise and diet logging applications and an activities checklist are included as well.
