Global health and the social studies of medicine and health: contributions of Anthropology to the improvement of health care

• Grant number: 14/00158-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 01, 2014
• End date: January 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health
• Principal Investigator: José Ricardo de Carvalho Mesquita Ayres
• Grantee: José Ricardo de Carvalho Mesquita Ayres
• Host Investigator: João Biehl
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Princeton University, United States

Abstract

Studies at the interface between the human sciences and health practices are a priority at this time, given the current significant worldwide crisis of legitimacy that healthcare is going through. Reconstruction movements such as the Brazilian national policy for humanization of the national health system (PNH-SUS) call for responses at university level. On the one hand, concepts and technologies in which the sociocultural determinants of becoming ill can be better grasped and managed and in which the health needs of populations and individuals can be effectively attended to have been made necessary. On the other hand, incorporation of these topics into training for professionals within healthcare and the humanities has been shown to be fundamental, so that they can participate positively in this process. The present project has the aim of exploring the contribution of anthropology towards better comprehension of the health-disease-care processes, especially with regard to groups in situations of greater social vulnerability. Starting from the concepts of "care" and "comprehensiveness", as developed within the public health sphere in Brazil, it will be sought to identify potential dialogue with socioanthropological production relating to "social markers of difference". The research fellowship at Princeton University, one of the most prestigious centers worldwide for investigations within the anthropology of healthcare, and participation in the interdisciplinary activities developed in its "Global Health and Health Policy" program will add power to this theoretical investigation. In addition to conceptual advances, it is expected that this work will develop a common research protocol, interchanges for teaching the health humanities in the two institutions - University of São Paulo and Princeton University - and joint production of seminars and papers. (AU)