Contemporary Directions of the Brazilian Medical Professionalism in the Context of the Professional Governance in Health of SUS

The study focus on possible current consequences from the organization of the Brazilian SUS and its professional governance in health (Kuhlmann & Saks 2014), which can be producing new directions for the medical professionalism in Brazil. The investigation is grounded on analytical frameworks from sociology of profession as well as social policy analysis (Bochel & Bochel, 2013). In methodological terms, the paper intends to capture those possible changes according to the medical practice viewpoint, so that besides bibliographical analysis and the investigation of specific and normative documents from the health sector, the paper is based on semi structured interviews with Brazilian physicians. The health system of Brazil is characterized for: a) a decentralization process connected to the local or municipal prominence in the delivery of health services; b) a public-private arrangement for the system; c) the construction of institutional spheres for the political participation of civil society organizations. The analysis intends to understand the combination, and possible hybridization, of a preview civil professionalism (Halliday, 1999) and an emergent democratic professionalism (Olson & Dzur, 2004) in medical practice. The contemporary reality of the Brazilian medical profession is characterized for an internal debate over the connections between a biomedical, a sanitarian (Paim, 1997) and some new trends of alternative, complementary and integrative types of medical approach (Galhardi, Barros & Leite-Mor, 2013; Tesser & Barros, 2008). As the Brazilian health system is decentralized, the investigation focus on a local/municipal reality which could represent a sociological bases for a case study analysis (Yin, 2015).