The authors who contributed to issue 48, the first of 2014, worked on the following topics: healthcare policies, biopolitics, doctor-patient relationships, reproductive health, gender violence, primary care, mental health, medicationalization, work and health, professional healthcare practice, healthcare training, Brazilian National Health System and creative processes.

Healthcare policies within the sphere of overall health are the topic of a paper by Gustavo Matta and Arlinda Moreno, which takes the reference point of the works of Boaventura Santos. This paper highlights the political and epistemological discussion regarding the relationships between globalization and health and the rhetorical use of global health indicators for constructing policies for poor and developing countries.

Biopolitics and the doctor-patient relationship are the subject of an investigation grounded in the political philosophy of Michel Foucault, in which the records of complaints relating to expert medical advice held by the Social Security Ombudsman’s Office were analyzed. According to Maria da Penha Pereira de Melo, discussing social security means clarifying its security assumptions.

Reproductive health and sexuality are the topic of reflections by Luiza Bastos, Miriam Ventura and Elaine Brandão on some of the discursive elements presented by the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ICEC) on its website, with the aim of expanding access to emergency contraception.

In a study analyzing professional healthcare practices relating to women exposed to situations of violence, Luana Almeida, Ana Teresa Silva and Liliane Machado demonstrate that in such services, violence lacks visibility and there is lack of awareness regarding the topic of gender and its complexity.

The need for actions towards demedicalization is pointed out by Indara Bezerra, Maria Jorge, Mardênia Vasconcelos, Leilson Lima and Ana Gondim, in a study that sought to understand how mental healthcare is being produced within primary care, from the experiences of professionals, users and family members. Healthcare professionals practices are also the focus of another paper in this issue, by Mariana Silva, Laís Souza and Mara Santos, in which the perceptions of users of outpatient physiotherapy services within the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) regarding the problem-solving capability of this care and the obstacles faced were analyzed.

In a paper making reference to Brazilian popular music, José Pina highlights topics relating to the topic of work and health, especially within samba. This author emphasizes that the wealth of popular songs provides content relating to the multiple dimensions of work and health-illness processes among workers and the collective and historical dimensions of the struggle for healthcare rights.

Health and quality of life is the topic of an integrative review study by Neuma Chaveiro and coworkers, which focuses on deaf people’s health. The results from this study indicate that deafness has a negative impact on these individuals’ health-related quality of life.

The topic of healthcare professionals’ training appears in several papers in this issue, including: an essay on medical practice and training for this, in the light of the thinking of Hannah Arendt, by Rodrigo Silveira, Bruno Stelet and Roseni Pinheiro; and a paper on the possible contributions of the works of the founder of Anthroposophic Medicine, Rudolf Steiner, to comprehensiveness within medical education, which was developed by Leandro Wenceslau, Ferdinand Röhr and Charles Tesser. Other papers on this issue focus on specific aspects of the curricula of healthcare professionals’ training courses, in a review study, a new investigation and a report on experiences relating to healthcare training practices.

This issue also includes a review of the book Humanização e Humanidades em Medicina (Humanization and Humanities in Medicine), by Izabel Cristina Rios and Lilia Schraiber, written by André Mota; the abstracts of two theses on Family Health; and, in the Brief Notes section, Simone Diniz analyzes the documentary Renascimento do parto (Rebirth of delivery), which broke the record for the fastest crowdfunding in Brazil. Answering the question posed in the title of this paper (The rebirth of delivery, and what the Brazilian National Health System has to do with this), the author states that a film about the “right to choose” with regard to delivery has everything to do with the national system, thus justifying this affirmation.

Lastly, the Creation section includes Carla Silva’s university extension project “Young Talent of Gonzaga” , which was developed through dynamic activity workshops and artistic-cultural proposals; and the photographic essay “On processes of appropriation and intersection in images” by the photographer Cintia Ribas. Starting from this issue, Cintia will join our Creation team, to make contributions through images for publication on the journal’s website (the journal now only has an online version), thereby further strengthening this section and its aims.

Miriam Foresti
Editor

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