Dados abertos governamentais em saúde pública: um estudo de caso da vigilância epidemiológica do município de São Carlos/SP

Abstract

Open Government Data (OGD) is an initiative that promotes the publication of public government data and information in reusable formats, with the aim of increasing transparency and fostering greater political participation of citizens. In this context, Epidemiological Surveillance (ES) uses these data to study the health-disease process and develop public health policies, which improves the life of the population, with information as its main object of work. In view of this, the research problem of this master’s thesis is to investigate how the ES of the municipality of São Carlos collects and uses OGD to transform them into information that can guide public health policies. This problem is materialized in the following research questions: (1) “How is data collection carried out in the ES of São Carlos?”; (2) “What is the process of acquiring information from these data?”; (3) “How is the acquired information disseminated?”; (4) “How do such data and information assist with the decision-making process regarding the implementation of public health policies?”. Therefore, the general objective of this research is to understand the flow of data from the SIS, how these data are used by the ES of São Carlos, and how the ES uses the open data repository of DATASUS and SIS to monitor the cases recorded in these systems and, through the information acquired in them, plan public health actions and policies. This is a case study of qualitative and exploratory nature, with a review of the thematic literature and in-depth interviews with public managers. The results show that the ES of the municipality of São Carlos has a data cycle that begins with notifications made at health care centers and, subsequently, undergoes processes that reach the Federal level. In addition, it was possible to prepare two flowcharts: one of the SINAN net and another of the SINAN online, which contribute to the proposed objective, enabling verification of part of the data flow of health information.