RETS - Rede Internacional de Educação de Técnicos em Saúde

RETS Magazine was established as a quarterly publication. However, this fourth edition now before readers covers the period from August to December 2009. The purpose of this change was to adjust the schedule of the magazine so that starting in 2010, you will receive exactly four editions per year - the first beginning in January and the last including December. Interestingly enough, the delay, which is always a problem for published journals, was necessary to ensure the very important timing of the magazine hereafter. Rest assured that the decision to cover five months, as you may find in your reading, did not affect in any way the currentness and relevance of the topics discussed in this issue.

The strategy of the Observatories of Health Human Resources, launched by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO / WHO) in 1999, is completing 10 years. Nothing would be more appropriate than to devote the principal magazine space to this effort, with the help of some important characters of this story – Felix Rigoli, Mónica Padilla and José Paranaguá (PAHO / WHO), Adam Ahmat (Afro / WHO) and Monica Vieira (EPSJV / Fiocruz ) - to discuss the initiative which is beginning to spread to other regions and assume new functions.

In the interview, Executive Secretary of the Andean Health Organization - Hipólito Unanue Agreement (ORAS-CONHU), the Venezuelan Oscar Feo Istúriz very wisely points out some of the key aspects of the relationship between the current process of globalization and public health, highlighting the impact it has on the health workforce.

A digital library of ‘The Capacity Project’, a list of ObServer electronic messages, and DVD media with a virtual tour of a Safe Hospital, are all featured in the ‘Keepingan Eye Out’ section, which debuts in this issue and which will disseminate technologies and tools designed to enhance the work of those who deal with the training of health workers and other related topics.

Rounding out the issue, we also present, among other things, the main points of the formation project of the Network of Health Technician Schools of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), approved in September in Rio de Janeiro during a meeting of the Working Group on Development and Human Resource Management, and continued discussion of the meanings of the term ‘education of health technicians’.

Happy reading!

RETS Executive Secretariat