Ambulatory primary care production and early medical training in Brazil: a time-series analysis, 2008–2024
Camila Cristina DE OLIVEIRA RODRIGUES, Márcio Cristiano DE MELO, Naila Albertina DE OLIVEIRA, Ivana Daniela CESAR, Zeliande LINHARES LEITE ZAMBON and Ana Cristina WIZIACK ZAGO
Primary Health Care (PHC) is central to medical education in Brazil, emphasizing early, supervised student engagement in community care. In private schools outside major cities, such as São Leopoldo Mandic de Araras, PHC integrates teaching, services, and community needs. Yet, how ambulatory production reflects activities for early training remains unclear.To identify and analyze ambulatory care procedures recorded in DATASUS that align with supervised practice of medical students in the first six semesters, considering the PHC curriculum (PHC I–VI), national guidelines, and SUS policies.An ecological time-series study was conducted using secondary data from the Brazilian Outpatient Information System (SIA/SUS) for São Paulo between 2008 and 2024. Procedures compatible with supervised undergraduate practice were grouped into formative axes: health education activities; physical and integrative practices; educational home visits; basic nutritional assessment; collective oral health actions; workers’ health education; patient reception; and total ambulatory production. Annual rates per 10,000 inhabitants were calculated using official population estimates. Joinpoint regression was applied to procedures with continuous data to estimate Annual Percent Change (APC) and identify trend inflection points.Selected procedures represented a broad spectrum of PHC activities aligned with early medical training. Home visits by mid-level professionals showed the highest rates, increasing from 8,670.4 per 10,000 inhabitants in 2008 to 10,422.2 in 2024, underscoring territorial and longitudinal care as a learning environment. Anthropometric assessment rose until 2017 (3,956.4), declined during COVID-19, and partially recovered by 2024 (2,437.6). Group educational activities declined significantly (global APC = −11.1%; p<0.001), with sharp reduction between 2017 and 2020. Integrative practices and oral health actions became more frequent from the late 2010s onward.Ambulatory PHC production reflects service delivery and systemic changes. Educational and integrative activities proved more vulnerable to disruptions than home visits and anthropometric assessment, which may affect PHC-based curricula and student exposure to community-oriented practices.Aligning medical education, SUS policies, and health information systems is essential to strengthen teaching–service integration and sustain community-oriented training. These findings highlight the need for resilient strategies to preserve formative activities during systemic challenges.
