Educação médica e a pandemia de covid-19 - conhecimento tecnológico de professores de medicina

Introduction: One of the COVID-19 pandemic strategies to stop the virus from spreading was social distancing, leading to university closures. Consequently, the teachers had to rapidly adapt from a face-to-face teaching method to a completely online one. However, some universities courses, like medicine, have essentially practical subjects, which were a challenge for teachers during the pandemic. Moreover, virtual learning requires, besides good internet and infrastructure, also technological knowledge. Objective: Therefore, we aimed to study technological knowledge related to teaching methods in a pre-pandemic period among teachers from Latin American medical universities, comparing Brazil with other Latin American countries. Material and methods: an online and self-administered questionnaire about digital tool proficiency and educational platforms in the pre-pandemic period (2019) was sent by email to Latin American medical universities from 2020 to 2021. Comparison between Brazil and the other Latin American countries as well as 2020 versus 2021 were made. Results: other Latin American countries had a higher percentage of online material prepared in addition to greater experience on teaching platforms than Brazil. Moreover, with the adaptation to technologies, we observed that between 2020 and 2021, there was an increase in virtual material prepared for classes, but the difficulties remained. Conclusion: Medical teachers from other Latin American countries were more technologically prepared for remote teaching during the pandemic. The findings highlight the need for institutional policies to foster digital competencies among Brazilian teachers.