The clinical science has advanced greatly in recent years, which has triggered the design of
screening tools aimed at facilitating the assessment of a patients’ health status [1]. With the development
of the medicine, the number of guidelines available and counseling methods, that
have been developed to assist clinicians in the nutrition care process, have increased [2]. This
breakthrough in medical screening tools has led to the creation of newer assessment software
and the automation of very large collections of multiversion clinical guidelines [3], which has
facilitated the health professionals’ work and the optimization of hospital activities [4]. Moreover,
many clinical protocols have been integrated into IT-supported environments in order todevelop innovative software able to generate a differential diagnoses based on clinical data [5].
However, only a small proportion of these clinical programs are available for students to improve
their skills in nutritional assessment. Therefore, the healthcare software would provide a
unique opportunity for the students to enhance learning during their graduate studies.
A significant proportion of learning occurs through interactive computing technologies,
which has led the development of online e-learning systems, web-based learning modules or
simulation programs [6–8]. In addition, the Internet Technology is widely used in continuing
professional development for qualified specialists, in promoting knowledge exchange across
the community and in improving the health education [9–11], being able to be considered a
potential tool to evolve educational methods.
The incorporation of computer assisted instruction (CAI) in the student’s curricula reduces
the instructor’s teaching time, increasing the time available to monitor individual students´
performance, improving the student’s attitude toward the course [12]. Moreover, the computer-
based modules offer significant advantages in the curriculum development of the students
compared to traditional teaching modalities, because provide opportunities for asynchronous
learning, and allow learners access to multiple resources to further explore a topic [13]. These
programs have the potential to bridge the gap between theory and practice, increasing the opportunity
for students to develop problem-solving skills by allowing them to deal with simulated
situations before they have to face real clinical experiences [14].
An appropriate clinical evaluation of patient’s nutritional status is accomplished when there
is a correct integration between nutritional data, patient’s information and physician’s knowledge.
In recent years, many of the nutritional software have been based on food consumption
data collection [15], but few have helped the specialist in clinical reasoning. By the simulation,
it is possible to execute this integration, and many of these applications are used as pedagogical
tools for the health professionals´ education [16]. Students and nutrition specialists can learn
to recognize abnormal nutritional states, to perform evaluations and to prescribe appropriate
treatments to the patient by the employment of these software [17]. Moreover, the computerized
clinical decision support systems help health care providers to avoid errors and, substantially,
to improve clinical practice and efficiency in health care [18].
The aim of this project was to develop a Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) for the learning
of nutritional assessment, featuring a multidisciplinary perspective. This CAI is part of UNy-
DIET (nutrition software) [19], and it consists of a complete software package that submitted
instructional material related to the diagnosis of nutritional issues. Using this CAI, students
can perform simulations of clinical cases of patients with diseases associated to the nutritional
status. The focus was to create a software that integrates nutritional data, patient’s information
and current tools of work that help the professional in the clinical reasoning based on data
from previous nutritional, clinical and epidemiological studies.