CNN Vital Signs addresses Family and Community Medicine

Between the contrasts of scenery from the countryside of Pernambuco to the second largest favela in São Paulo, the CNN Vital Signs This week follows the paths of Family and Community Medicine, one of the most important pillars of primary health care.

Dr. Roberto Kalil walked through the streets of Paraisópolis, in the south zone of the capital of São Paulo, alongside the health team that provides care in the region and learned a little more about the work of these professionals who leave their offices and medical centers every day to immerse yourself in the reality of patients.

“It’s a brilliant specialty. Their work saves lives and improves people's quality of life. This system should be increasingly expanded to all communities in the country”, highlights Kalil.

For Dr. Gonzalo Vecina Neto, public health doctor and professor at the Faculty of Public Health at USP, “the community health agent is a Brazilian invention and must necessarily live where he is going to work, so that he has the trust of families and that he be received by families in their respective homes.”

The team at CNN also traveled to Pernambuco, in the Northeast region, to tell the story of a young man, son of farming parents, who entered medicine because of family medicine. Jeferson Cesar's passion for the health sector began when he was a community agent in a small village in rural Pernambuco.

The agents, considered extremely important players in the family health strategy, are necessarily residents of that community and are responsible for regularly visiting patients' homes. In addition to them and doctors, the teams generally include nurses, nursing technicians, residents and dentists.

“I came in with the aim of trying to help a community that is experiencing some difficulty.”

Directly from the steps of Morro da Conceição, in Recife, the fast pace of a doctor passionate about the SUS and people's lives. Dr. Rafaela Pacheco is among more than 7 thousand family doctors in Brazil.

“Working on person-centered care is different from working on disease-centered care. Because a person is much more than the illness they present, they have their issues, their way of eating, whether they are hungry or not, how they deal with their emotions and their spirituality. We practice person-centered medicine”, explains Rafaela.

O CNN Vital Signs with Dr. Roberto Kalil, will air on Saturday (3), at 7:15 pm, on CNN Brazil .