This piece presents and analyzes a number of issues related to social medicine: the context of the emergence of social medicine; the differences between social medicine and public health; the theories, methods, and debates in social medicine; the main subjects or problems considered in social medicine; and the difficulties of disseminating the concepts of social medicine among English-speaking persons and among medical and public health professionals in general. Latin American social medicine has challenged other views by contributing to an understanding of the determinants of the health-disease-health care process and by using theories, methods, and techniques that are little known in the field of public health. Introducing Latin American social medicine, especially among English speakers, will be difficult due to the conceptual complexity of this field for persons who are accustomed to the theoretical framework of public health and medicine and also due to skepticism concerning research coming from the Third World. A multidisciplinary team is facing this challenge through two primary initiatives: 1) the creation of an Internet portal and database where there are structured abstracts in English, Portuguese, and Spanish of books, book chapters, and articles on social medicine and 2) the electronic publication of two journals on Latin American social medicine.

This article presents the results of the comparative research project "Managed Care in Latin America: Its Role in Health Reform". The project was conducted by teams in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and the United States. The study's objective was to analyze the process by which managed care is exported, especially from the United States, and how managed care is adopted in Latin American countries. Our research methods included qualitative and quantitative techniques. Adoption of managed care reflects transnationalization of the health sector. Our findings demonstrate the entrance of large multinational financial capital into the private insurance and health services sectors and their intention of participating in the administration of government institutions and medical/social security funds. We conclude that this basic change involving the slow adoption of managed care is facilitated by ideological changes with discourses accepting the inexorable nature of public sector reform.

Este artículo presenta resultados de la investigación comparativa "Atención Gerenciada en América Latina: Su Papel en la Reforma de los Sistemas de Salud", realizada por equipos de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador y Estados Unidos. El objetivo del estudio fue analizar el proceso de exportación de la atención gerenciada, especialmente desde Estado Unidos, y su incorporación en los países latinoamericanos. Los métodos utilizados incluyeron técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas. La adopción de la atención gerenciada muestra el proceso de transnacionalización del sector salud. Nuestros hallazgos demuestran el ingreso de los principales capitales financieros multinacionales en el sector privado de seguros y de prestadores de salud, y su intencionalidad de participar en la administración de las instituciones estatales y de los fondos de la seguridad social médica. Concluimos que este proceso de cambio sustancial, que implica la paulatina adopción de la atención gerenciada, es facilitado por las transformaciones operadas a nivel ideológico.

This article presents the results of the comparative research project "Managed Care in Latin America: Its Role in Health Reform". The project was conducted by teams in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, and the United States. The study's objective was to analyze the process by which managed care is exported, especially from the United States, and how managed care is adopted in Latin American countries. Our research methods included qualitative and quantitative techniques. Adoption of managed care reflects transnationalization of the health sector. Our findings demonstrate the entrance of large multinational financial capital into the private insurance and health services sectors and their intention of participating in the administration of government institutions and medical/social security funds. We conclude that this basic change involving the slow adoption of managed care is facilitated by ideological changes with discourses accepting the inexorable nature of public sector reform.

Este artículo presenta resultados de la investigación comparativa "Atención Gerenciada en América Latina: Su Papel en la Reforma de los Sistemas de Salud", realizada por equipos de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador y Estados Unidos. El objetivo del estudio fue analizar el proceso de exportación de la atención gerenciada, especialmente desde Estado Unidos, y su incorporación en los países latinoamericanos. Los métodos utilizados incluyeron técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas. La adopción de la atención gerenciada muestra el proceso de transnacionalización del sector salud. Nuestros hallazgos demuestran el ingreso de los principales capitales financieros multinacionales en el sector privado de seguros y de prestadores de salud, y su intencionalidad de participar en la administración de las instituciones estatales y de los fondos de la seguridad social médica. Concluimos que este proceso de cambio sustancial, que implica la paulatina adopción de la atención gerenciada, es facilitado por las transformaciones operadas a nivel ideológico.