Health Surveillance: should it be a public policy?

Abstract

In view of the fact that Health Surveillance could be an important framework to monitor health-disease processes, the aim of this paper is to discuss the possibility of transforming Health Surveillance into a public policy. We present the concept of public policy and approach the potentialities and limits of health models becoming mediators between the technical and political dimensions. The data that underpin this discussion come from a research project, developed during 2005/2007, about Health Surveillance in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. We utilize the example of São Paulo to discuss a proposal for surveillance as an intersection between different areas. The conclusion of this study is that, in order to solve problems created by social inequities we have to understand health like a social question and make actions in health that should involve or articulate different areas of society. That is why we understand that Health Surveillance has to be treated like a public policy.