Abstract:

Introduction:
The Open University of the Unified Health System of the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UNA-SUS / UFCSPA), located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, developed a Specialization Course in Family Health. The training of the health professionals takes place in the scope of the Program of Valorization of the Professional of the Basic Attention (PROVAB) and of the More Doctors Program (PMM), in the modality of distance education (EAD). The course is offered to health professionals from seven Brazilian states, where in their practice they experience various sociodemographic, cultural and epidemiological specificities.

Objective:
To describe the experience of contextualization and adequacy of content for the specific characteristics of a certain geographic region in Brazil.

Methodology:
We present the arguments and strategies used for what we call the regionalization of content. This regionalization process was mainly structured with the development of complex cases and the construction of fictitious virtual cities with specificities of three different regions where the course is taken: South, Northeast and North.

Results:
The creation of cities involved the elaboration of their political and health history; the main characters; geographical organization and sociodemographic data; the health, commercial and residential structure, merging real elements and others that were completely invented, allowing for a credible configuration of a city. Each city was created to contextualize the contents in complex cases according to the epidemiological characteristics of the different regions. The clinical content of the course was developed in complex cases, which provides for the discussion of clinical issues, ones that are essential in the practice of Family Health, contextualized in individual complex situations of family and community/systemic, representing the day to day of the professional in the Strategy of Family Health. These complex cases were set in virtual fictional cities created by the course team. This new approach of the contents was made available to eight classes and a total of 766 students from the North and Northeast regions, who finished the course based on the new methodology. The considerations of the positive influences of the production of the new digital educational materials in the daily learning of the students were identified.

Conclusions:
The quality of the EAD is directly related to the possibility of contextualizing the content, thus favoring the application of the obtained knowledge. It is believed that the investment in this process of regionalization of content allows the professional to reflect on their professional practice.

Keywords:

Distance education, Regionalization, Virtual cities.