Mário Chaves

Linking the university with the community and its health system

Summary. Over many years Latin American universities have operated ‘extension projects’ in their surrounding communities. These projects, in health professions schools, frequently involved the establishment of community‐based health centres operated by the university. Since the early 1970s, a large number of health professions schools entered into agreements with local or regional health systems for the operation of projects of ‘articulation of teaching and services’ in well‐defined geographic areas. The primary health care strategy emphasized by WHO and actively promoted by national governments since the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978 led to a worldwide movement toward effective ‘community participation’ in each own local health system.