Resumen de Health Information Systems and Democracy: Contributions from the Brazilian Sanitary Movement
Marcelo Fornazin, Luiz Antonio Joia
Within the context of studies on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), earlier research has sought to understand how Health Information Systems (HIS) can achieve success in developing countries. However, in Brazil in addition to these studies, research under the guise of Information and Information Technology in Health (IITH), developed within the context of the Brazilian Sanitary Movement, also investigates how HIS can contribute to the development of health practices. Thus, this paper reviews the IITH literature, discussing its proposals with studies of HIS within ICT4D. IITH research seeks to understand how health ICT can contribute to an emancipating democratic process, and toward management and enhancement of health. For this, health ICT are considered a strategic space for political dispute, raising questions about the fragmentation of HIS. Moreover, actors and spaces for discussion are contextualized in an information and information technology interfield. It is hoped that the presentation of the IITH perspective will contribute to the expansion of the theoretical framework of ICT4D and lay the foundations for further research in developing countries.
