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EDUMECENTRO 2022;14:e2141
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Some considerations on "MEDINAT: educational software for teaching Herbal and folk Medicine"
Algunas consideraciones sobre "MEDINAT: software educativo para la enseñanza de Medicina Natural y Tradicional"
Luis Alberto Lazo Herrera1* http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1788-9400
1 Pinar del Río University of Medical Sciences. Faculty of Medical Sciences "Dr. Ernesto Che Guevara de la Serna". Pinar del Río. Cuba.
* Author for correspondence. Email: tieherrera96@gmail.com
Submitted: 10/11/2021
Accepted: 23/11/2021
Dear editor:
With great interest I have read the article "MEDINAT: educational software for teaching Herbal and Folk Medicine"(1) published in the EDUMECENTRO journal. In it, its authors conclude on the quality of the educational software designed and its relevance as an auxiliary tool for learning the topic it addresses, after its implementation. In this sense, it is valid to highlight that the creation of computer products and their introduction in higher medical education has gained special relevance in recent years, due in part to the accelerated advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) that have turned them into a highly valid aid in the teaching-learning process. However, there are a number of points I would like to point out in relation to published research.
In the first place, the elaboration of this proposal draws attention when in the country (Cuba) there are multiple tools created of educational software type and aimed at learning Herbal and folk medicine (HFM) in different degrers and subjects within the different curricula. (2,3,4,5,6) to this regard, the research by Hernández-García et al.,(7) where an educational software was designed for the learning of HFM in the Medicine degree stands out, with satisfactory results and with the capacity for generalization in teaching. However, we did not find any of these products among the antecedents cited by the authors. Although the educational needs and specific learning scenarios are specific to each territory or medical university, I consider that the study of previous similar proposals should be taken into account when designing a tool to satisfy these needs, taking into account the advantages and limitations reported by others researchers.
On the other hand, assessing the educational or learning needs of the beneficiary population is an important starting point when creating a teaching environment, which must be taken into account by the creators of MEDINAT and others for future elaborations. It is also important to define the aspects included in the variable that we frequently define as "level of knowledge", when referring to the study of HFM, the elements that the student of Medicine and other medical degrees must know and the subjects of the curriculum where they are implemented, those that are well defined in Cuban study plans.
The teaching of HFM linked to the different degrees of the medical sciences is today a priority for medical education and defined by the Ministry of Public Health, which is often omitted due to the limited availability of bibliography available to universities on this topic; That is why the creation of tools such as multimedia, websites and mobile applications play an important role in the teaching-learning process of Cuban universities.
The valuation carried out, both by specialists and users, is of great value when evaluating your electronic product; this will make it possible to affirm that it is accepted, both by experts and by the public to whom it is intended for, with positive results.
Despite the aforementioned existence of other educational software for learning HFM in the country, the authors decided to design a new product for use by medical science students, so the text of the article had to answer questions, such as: Why not to use one of the multimedia already created? Is it really necessary to design a new product if there are others with similar characteristics? This also suggests that it is probable that the software already created is not accessible online and are found as executable materials, so a joint action by medical universities is pending, in this sense, to generalize the computerized tools intramurally developed, although it is valid to clarify that some have platforms for this, such as the Holguín University of Medical Sciences, the creators of the tool chosen to create MEDINAT (Chreasoft 3.0).
In conclusion, the development of new proposals for learning and their introduction in higher medical education must be meticulously careful, starting from an orderly, rigorous and logical research process, starting from the identification of proposals similar to the one created, the needs of learning or limitations of the benefited students and from there the design, preparation and evaluation. This will guarantee the obtaining of a final product capable of satisfying users and with the potential to be generalized to teaching.
A recognition to the researchers for their work and the exhortation to continue making products of this type that serve as material aids for teaching on a subject with such a lack of bibliography as the HFM.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
1.Domínguez Fabars A, Queralta Mazar V, Caballero Orduño A, Miyares Quintana K. MEDINAT: software educativo para la enseñanza de Medicina Natural y Tradicional. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2020 [citado 22/02/2020];12(1):[aprox. 24 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2077-28742020000100046
2.Robaina-Castillo JI, Hernández-García F, Pérez-Calleja NC, González-Díaz EC, Angulo-Peraza BM. Aplicación multimedia para el estudio de la medicina natural y tradicional integrada a la pediatría. Educ Med [Internet]. 2020 [citado 22/04/2020];21(1):[aprox. 6 p.]. Disponible en: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1575181318301402
3.Lazo Herrera LA, León Sánchez B, Hernández García F, Robaina Castillo JI, Díaz Pita G. Multimedia educativa para el aprendizaje de la acupuntura y digitopuntura por estudiantes de Medicina. Inv Ed Med [Internet]. 2019 [citado 22/04/2020];8(32):[aprox. 9 p.]. Disponible en: https://www.medigraphic.com/cgi-bin/new/resumen.cgi?IDARTICULO=93529
4.Lazo Herrera LA, Hernández Cabrera EP, Linares Cánovas LP, Díaz Pita G. SoftPuntura, software educativo sobre Acupuntura y Digitopuntura. RCIM [Internet]. 2018 [citado 22/04/2020];10(1):[aprox. 10 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1684-18592018000100006
5.Cables Fernández D, Cables Fernández B, Mir Peña N, Fernández Peña I. Acupunsoft, una alternativa para el aprendizaje en Estomatología. CCM [Internet]. 2013 [citado 22/04/2020];17(3):[aprox. 1 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1560-43812013000300025
6.González Díaz EC, González Fernández A, Hidalgo Ávila M, Robaina Castillo JI, Hernández García F, Hernández Gómez D. APUNTUSOFT: herramienta para el aprendizaje de la medicina tradicional integrada a la Morfofisiología. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2017 [citado 22/04/2020];9(3):[aprox. 16 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S2077-28742017000300003
7.Hernández García F, Robaina Castillo JI, González Díaz EC, Pérez Calleja NC, Angulo Peraza BM, Dueñas López N. Natumed, multimedia para la implementación de la Estrategia Curricular de Medicina Natural y Tradicional en la carrera de Medicina. MEDICIEGO [Internet]. 2016 [citado 22/04/2020];22(4):[aprox. 10 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.revmediciego.sld.cu/index.php/mediciego/article/view/580
Declaration of interests
The author declare not to have any interest conflicts.
Contribución de autoría:
Luis Alberto Lazo Herrera: conceptualization, methodology and preparation of the manuscript.
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