Suchergebnisse

Purpose: Brazil has adopted e-Health as a national policy applied to healthcare and education since 2006. The aim of the present study is to present the evolution of the legislation as it reflects the evolution of the Brazilian Telehealth Program along this period of time, as well as some learned lessons. Methods: To describe the evolution of the program, a model was adopted, and analysed in parallel to the three main edicts that oriented the evolution of the program. Results: The life cycle stages of e-health implementation were identified in the evolution of the 3 different stages of the Brazilian Telehealth Program and also reflected in the evolution of its legislation. The results of pilot project from the first stage was followed and guided the implementation of the National Program applied to primary health care in the second stage. The Program has been implemented all over the country, developed new concepts, became integrated to the Unified Health Systems not only in primary health care, but also include median and high complexity level of care. Conclusion: The Brazilian Telehealth Program, along his implementation and consolidation, established new concepts and had telehealth included in its roll of services. These accomplishments are reflected in the Brazilian legislation, which considers and applies e-Health as a national policy.

Technology Enabled Learning, distance learning that leverages Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), has enabled thousands of individuals to access educational content, , and encouraged many educational institutions to adopt this modality. In Brazil, in order to promote Permanent Education in Health or continuing professional development (CPD) of professionals working in the public health sector, the government created the Open University of Brazilian National Health System (UNA-SUS), which offers postgraduate, updating and improvement courses, focusing on public and community health. In addition, to improve quality in Primary Care service inside SUS, Brazil developed the Telehealth Networks Programme; a national program that integrates teaching and service through ICT, offering conditions to promote Telecare and Tele-education. A challenge in consolidating these initiatives is to service professionals working in remote areas, precisely those who need CPD the most. To address this problem, UNA-SUS collaborated with Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA) to develop applications for mobile devices available through the SAITE Store platform. This makes the educational content created by the institution available both online and offline, and using different types of devices. Recognising Dentistry as a primary healthcare component, UNA-SUS/UFMA developed applications for this specific area. The content is multidisciplinary, presenting relevant information to the various professionals who provide primary care services in dental care within the healthcare network. This paper describes the history of the partnership between UNA-SUS/UFMA, the focus on dentistry and alignment with the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of São Paulo (FOUSP) Teledentistry programme, the rationale and production process of mobile applications by UNA-SUS/UFMA, and their relevance for academic and professional qualification of primary healthcare workers throughout Brazil.