Family health strategy: A technological innovation in health

Abstract

The importance of the Family Health Strategy in the health sector in Brazil, and the debate on technology and technological innovation have led to the development of a theoretical reflection aiming to characterize the Family Health Strategy as a non-material technological innovation of the health field. In order to construct the text, the philosophical and sociological approach was used, as was the conceptualization of technological innovation, found in international documents and in Brazilian legislation and publications regarding technological innovation in health care. These references were used in order to analyze what is prescribed for the Family Health Strategy in the National Primary Healthcare Policy, emphasizing the innovative aspects in relation to biomedicine, which made it possible to support that the Family Health Strategy consists of a non-material technological innovation in health care, of the incremental type. It is concluded that the Family Health Strategy is a non-material technological innovation in health care, due to the principles which it anchors, and is incremental, as it does not completely break with the traditional model in health care.