DISTANCE LEARNING FOR THE HEALTH AREA

8.1 Introduction The health sector has proven to be quite productive in the area of public policy propositions, especially regarding those related with the redesign of the health care model aiming at a model that meets social demands. The Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca (ENSP) [National Public Health School Sérgio Arouca] is a Technical-Scientific Unit of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Fiocruz of Post-Graduation Studies in Health, belonging to the Ministry of Health (MH), having as one of its main objectives the education of professionals for the Sistema Único de Saúde Brasileiro – SUS [Brazilian unified Health System] in national scope. SUS is undoubtedly the best designed and has the most successful Brazilian public policies in the last decades due to its commitment with impartiality, ideal of holistic health care, model of participative management, sanitary development and social inclusion. SUS is structured for basic care, a gateway in the system up to the highest complexity services. Health care stations and centers, hospitals – including university hospitals – laboratories, hemocenters, foundations and research institutes are all part of SUS (Barilli, 2005). Throughout its difficult trajectory in consolidating these precepts, SUS has faced institutional structures still dominated by outdated paradigms determining the perception of health care work and public responsibility over health care. In particular, the area of professional development has been lacking some sort of renewal to turn it into a more effective space of innovation and drive to sanitary reform. ENSP has been the historical locus of the promotion of guiding principles for sanitary movements. In its 52 years of existence, it has established a significant contingent of health care professionals and managers, allying its expertise in the fields of Education, Research and Cooperation in Public Health. It has contributed to the development of personnel, preparation of public policies and played an important role on the promotion of cit