Introduction to the Special Edition on the Brazilian National Program to Improve Primary Care Access and Quality (PMAQ)

Brazil is well known as a country with large social and economic inequalities (Solt, 2016). But in recent years, Brazil has made considerable strides in extending a range of social protections including achieving nearly universal health coverage, expanding community-based primary care through the Family Health Strategy (FHS), and providing a robust conditional cash transfer program (Atun et al., 2015; Guanais, 2015). This special edition of The Journal of Ambulatory Care Management (JACM) presents a series of articles on Brazil’s National Program to Improve Primary Care Access and Quality (PMAQ). The PMAQ, initiated in 2010, is intended to accelerate access to primary care through the FHS while providing resources and pay-forperformance incentives to enhance health care infrastructure and the quality of care provided. The articles contained in the issue vary considerably in their methods and approach, but all make use of data generated as part of the PMAQ’s first and second rounds of performance assessment conducted in 2011-2012 and 2013-2014. The first article, “Diabetes Care in Brazil: Program for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality—PMAQ,” by Tomasi et al. (2017) uses data on 8118 health care users with diabetes from the first PMAQ cycle. In it, the authors identify a