Brazil is among the countries which have faced two devastating infection waves of COVID-19 in the past year. Despite the fact the country has one of the world’s leading immunization programs, Brazil only slowly established a national COVID-19 vaccination strategy and campaign. This case study is based on an integrative review of primary and secondary literature sources. Different search strategies on Medline and Google Scholar were performed for the case presentation, for the management and outcome of the COVID-19 outbreak and for the state of the COVID-19 vaccination program. Official documents from the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the website of the World Health Organization and pharmaceutical companies were also reviewed. Searches were limited to English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. This article describes the Brazilian COVID-19 vaccination campaign and the drivers and barriers to its implementation; and evaluates further investigations needed to have a conclusive overview over the constantly evolving situation. Healthcare inequalities, which were widened during the pandemic, a lack of coordination at the federal level, the absence of federal government support for scientific research and the lack of endorsement and commitment to the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic set the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign off to a challenging start. However, Brazil had a well-developed primary care system and national vaccination program prior to the pandemic, which are both important facilitators. At the time of writing, six vaccines are currently available in the country, and the program is advancing. The scientific community needs to continue to investigate the country’s vaccination strategy and its implementation to make sure that maximum effort is undertaken for the health of the Brazilian population.

Introduction: The Belo Horizonte Telehealth program, a pioneer in telemedicine within the Brazilian National Health System (Sistema Único de Sauùde in Portuguese ), was implemented by the Belo Horizonte City Health Department (SMSA-BH) in 2004. The purpose of the present study is to analyze opinions on the obstacles, difficulties, and suggestions on the use of teleconsultations. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted among primary healthcare professionals and health managers. Content analysis for the latter was carried out using NVIVO ^® software to categorize responses. Simple descriptive quantitative aspects were analyzed to verify the use of the system over the years by the primary care unit (PCU) professionals. Results: The difficulties encountered were related to the use of the system, inadequate response to teleconsultation requests, infrastructure problems, lack of practicality for the use of the program, difficulty in incorporating the program into the organizational culture, and lack of managerial support. Changes in management organization over the years have interfered with the use of the teleconsultation system. The most requested specialties were neurology, cardiology, endocrinology, and angiology. Discussion: The main suggestions for increasing the number of teleconsultations requests included dissemination of information and prioritization by the management; improvement of the infrastructure; organization of the time and the agenda of the PCU professional; training the professionals for its use; and preconditioning the referrals to secondary level care to a previous teleconsultation. Conclusion: Teleconsultations need to be incorporated in the daily routine of PCUs by both managers and health professionals to assure its usage and improve the quality of care.

Os Cursos de Graduação em Saúde Coletiva são hoje uma realidade. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a visão dos coordenadores desses cursos sobre o processo de criação e de implementação dos mesmos, com destaque para seus elementos contextuais e processuais. Foram entrevistados dez atores integrantes de oito instituições de ensino superior, e estas entrevistas foram submetidas à análise de conteúdo proposta por Bardin. Os resultados demonstraram que a criação dos cursos advém de longo processo de discussão no campo da Saúde Coletiva e foi impulsionada por alguns marcos na educação brasileira, entre eles o Programa de Apoio a Planos de Reestruturação e Expansão das Universidades Federais. Os depoimentos dos coordenadores permitiram resgatar os antecedentes da proposta e seu percurso nas diferentes instituições de ensino, além de estabelecer os pontos comuns e os específicos de cada processo. Atualmente, esses cursos, implantados e em andamento, se propõem a formar profissionais voltados para os diferentes níveis do sistema de saúde, em especial para aqueles integrantes do Sistema Único de Saúde, constituindo-se como um processo irreversível no campo da Saúde Coletiva.

Objective: to analyze the offer of courses, vacancies, number of first year and final year students in Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology in Brazil between 1994 and 2014, as well as the number of applicants per vacancy and the ratio of final year students to million inhabitants. Methods: search on the platform of the Sistema de Indicadores das Graduações em Saúde (SIGRAS - Health Under-graduation Indicator System) to obtain the number of courses, vacancies and first and final year students. From these data, the ratios of applicants to vacancy and of final-year students to million inhabitants were calculated, considering the demographic census. The data were analyzed according to the region of Brazil and to the legal nature of the institution. Results: the number of courses, vacancies, first and final year students was higher in the Southeast region and in private institutions in all historical series. Since 2008, there has been a decrease in the number of courses and vacancies in the Southeast and a progressive increase in the Northeast and in the South of the country. The Northeast presented the largest ratio of applicants to vacancy in the historical series. There was an increase in the number of final year students per million inhabitants in the first decade analyzed, followed by a decrease. Conclusion: regional inequality in the distribution of Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology courses in Brazil, greater participation of the private sector and a progressive increase of the public sector are verified.

The More Doctors Program encompasses an academic supervision carried out by supervisory institutions that have signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education (MEC). Academic supervision is part of the educational offers and implies periodic and regular visits to participant doctors. However, due to the difficulties of some institutions in the North region to fulfill their responsibilities under the Project More Doctors for Brazil, MEC created the Special Supervision Group (GES), which has been operating since 2014 in that region. This article records the GES experience in the state of Pará from January 2015 to May 2017. Its main contribution is to enable the provision of care for the population that inhabits a vast region where there is shortage of doctors, as the supervision of the professionals is mandatory and if it did not occur, the Program would not be allowed in Pará.