Origen y evolución del control de salud / Origin and evolution of periodic health check-ups

Los controles periódicos de salud son aquellos cuidados médicos realizados a intervalos regulares, motivados por la necesidad de evaluar la salud en general y prevenir enfermedades a futuro. Se presume que comenzaron a ponerse en práctica durante el siglo XIX para la detección precoz de la tuberculosis y otras enfermedades contagiosas. A principios del siglo XX fueron difundidos los programas de examinación médica en el contexto de la estimación del riesgo de enfermedad y/o muerte previo a la contratación de seguros de vida. El desarrollo tecnológico posterior a la Segunda Guerra mundial fomentó el interés en estas examinaciones periódicas con la implementación de pruebas masivas de rastreo, lo que aumentó de manera considerable de la mano de los servicios de medicina prepaga. En los últimos años se han realizado múltiples esfuerzos por cuantificar los beneficios de estos controles. Si bien existen diversas opiniones respecto a su utilidad, pareciera ser que el enfoque actual del control periódico de salud implica tener en cuenta las necesidades de las personas, el riesgo individual y la relación médico-paciente como eje de la discusión. (AU)

Periodic health check-ups are medical care performed at regular intervals, motivated by the need to assess general health and prevent future diseases. It is presumed that they began to be implemented in the 19thcentury for the early detection of tuberculosis and other contagious diseases, and later spread in the early 20thcentury in the context of estimating the risk of illness and/or death prior to taking out life insurance. The technological development after the World War II encouraged interest in these periodic examinations with the implementation of mass screening tests, which increased considerably with the introductionof prepaid medical services. In recent years, multiple efforts have been made to quantify the benefits of such controls. While there are varying opinionsas to their usefulness, it appears that the current approach to periodic health check-ups is to take into account the needs of individuals, their individual risk, and the doctor-patient relationship at the core of the discussion. (AU)

An Approach to Technology Development and Current Medical Practice

Abstract Background An approach to technology development and the current medical practice. Objective To consider the many stages of medical-applied technological developments and its main consequences related to the current medical practice and speculate on future developments. Methods Assessment of historical publications and individual and metanalysis of comparative evaluation of old versus new techniques. Results Documentation of progressive improvement in diagnostic skill and therapeutics toward less invasive procedures along the last decades, since the introduction of the scientific medicine. Conclusion Progress has been unequivocally documented albeit an effort to maintain time-proven established previous technique is advised, especially in favor of stimulating a personal patient-physician relationship. (International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences. 2020; [online].ahead print, PP.0-0)

Metamorfoses da medicalização e seus impactos na família brasileira / Metamorphoses of the social medicalization and its impacts on the Brazilian family

O artigo tematiza os traços culturais e políticos do fenômeno da medicalização que se instituiu na sociabilidade brasileira por meio da moralização da família, nos moldes da ideologia higienista "cidadã". O estudo baseou-se na revisão de pesquisas historiográficas, contextualizando o surgimento da cidadania associada à forma como o higienismo, o saber especializado, sobretudo médico, e o controle social sobre a família, emolduraram perfis de indivíduos aptos à civilidade societária. Analisam-se os mecanismos do Estado para alinhar as políticas públicas emergentes à legitimação do modelo biologizante e seus reflexos na produção de conhecimentos ratificadores da ordem posta. Por fim, o artigo aborda as repercussões entre o passado e o presente e os dispositivos de afirmação da ideologia capitalista sobre a família brasileira, por meio da reatualização do fenômeno da medicalização. Conclui-se que o substrato desse tempo histórico configurou um projeto societário que permanece em movimento para a conservação do ideário que lhe deu origem e sustentação. Se, no passado, a obediência aos especialistas era o ícone da higiene-cidadã, atualmente cobra-se dos cidadãos e das famílias uma postura ativa na preservação da saúde e do ambiente como se esses bens coletivos estivessem ao alcance individual, desconsiderando os determinantes das iniquidades em saúde.

This paper approaches the cultural, political and social traits of the medicalization phenomenon that has instituted the Brazilian sociability through the education and moralization of the family according to icons of a "citizenship" hygienist ideology. The study is based on review of historical research, which points to the context of origin of the citizenship notion, associated to social pattern how the hygiene, the expertise knowledge, especially medical and the social control over the family were framing profiles of infants and young suitable for the civilian society. The research analyses the devices that the State used to align emerging public policies to legitimize the biological pattern of sociability in the production of knowledge that ratifies the order placed. Finally the text reflects on the relations between the past and the present, examining the strategic devices of affirmation of the hegemonic ideology of the capitalist regulation on the Brazilian family, through the medicalization of contemporary social life, in its updating dimensions. It is concluded that the pattern of this historical time configured the project of a defined society that remains in constant movement and change to preserve the dominant ideology that gave origin and support to it. If in the past, the obedience to the experts were the moral rule of the good hygienic citizenship, today citizens and families are reminded about the active attitude to preserve health and environment, as these collective goods could depend from the individual responsibility, no having in count the social determinants of iniquities in health.