Planning and health management: perspectives and tendencies.

The National School of Public Health Sergio Arouca (ENSP), by means of the Department of Administration and Health Planning (DAPS) and supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), held in November 2009, a seminar on two interrelated themes: the network model applied to health systems and hospital services management and the latest trends and approaches in planning and health management, particularly in Brazil. The seminar counted with the presence of Professor Michel Crémadez from the École des Hautes Études Commerciaux (HEC Group) of Paris, one of the designers, along with François Grateau, from the Strategic Management of French Hospital (démarche stratégique hospitalier). One of the results of this event was this special issue of the Ciência e Saúde Coletiva journal of ABRASCO, due to the commitment of the participants to prepare articles based on their exposures. Also several members of research groups of ENSP and other educational and research institutions were invited to present results of recent researches, of theoretical or empirical nature, focused on planning and health management. The article chosen for discussion seeks to achieve a mapping of the main methodological approaches of planning in the national and international scenario and looks for finding theoretically the stream of Communicative Planning represented by the authors. This article is critically and competently reviewed which helps to broaden the horizons of the conceptual topic. The thematic panel of the journal prioritizes the themes of the seminar. The first four articles deal with networks and regionalization in health, issues considered relevant to the challenges we face today for the improvement of public health systems. The following article suggests a critical review of concepts and methods traditionally used in health planning, and the sixth and seventh, the use of different theoretical perspectives, emphasizing the centrality of individuals managers and workers in health practices. Such studies suggest the new contributions to cope with the complexity of problems related to planning and management in health. From the eighth to the twelfth article, the journal gathers research focused in planning and management of the Unified Health System (SUS), with different scope, clippings and methodological approaches: the labor management in the Family Health Strategy, planning policy health at national and state levels, the management of attention to the urgencies, the legalization of health and the management of pharmaceutical care. Finally, we would like to thank the collaboration of all participants of this journal that readily accepted our invitation, presenting works of high scientific quality and competence. We also thank and highlight the support received from the teams of the Head of DAPS, in particular to Professors Maria de Fátima Lobato and Marilene de Castilho Sá, for the organization, funding and dissemination of the Seminar and this publication. We believe that the product presented in this journal express the diversity of approaches and ideas that currently characterize the area of Health Management and Planning in the field of Collective Health. The theoretical and conceptual implications and practices of the studies gathered here collaborate to strengthen the conduction of an universal and fair public health services system that demand increasing levels of politicization and critical thinking.