The Municipal Health School (EMS), linked to the São Paulo Municipal Health Secretariat (SMS), was reorganized in 2011. Committed to the consolidation of the Unified Health System (SUS), EMS promotes actions in its pedagogical practice that enable the development of professional skills in the technical, ethical, political and communicative dimensions. Among its objectives are to train and update workers in the health area, through qualification courses, improvement, technical professional qualification of medium level, university and specialization (post-graduation), developing their aptitudes for productive and social life, besides the improvement of scientific knowledge and technical and pedagogical skills, and to produce and disseminate materials to support didactic-pedagogical activities.

Didactic-pedagogical activities are carried out at the headquarters, located in Vila Olímpia, or in its six regionalized units (Midwest, East I, East II, North, Southeast and South). The School offers health workers the “ABC of Distance Education”, which includes: the Virtual Learning Environment, created on the Moodle platform; the Virtual Health Library (VHL), launched in 2011, being the first of a municipal instance in Brazil and allowing the organization, indexing and dissemination of knowledge produced within the scope of SMS; and the Professional Channel, which produces television content for distance learning tools.