Author(s)

Carlos Augusto Grabois Gadelha, Laís Silveira Costa, José Manuel Santos de Varge Maldonado, Pedro Ribeiro Barbosa, Marco Antônio Vargas

Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazil.
Management and Institutional Development, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Professional Master’s Degree Course in Politics and Management of Science, Technology and Innovation in Health Care, Sergio Arouca School of Public Health, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Research Group Innovation in Health Care, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Science, Technology and Strategic Inputs, Ministry of Health, Brasilia, Brazil;.

The strategic role of health care within the Brazilian development agenda has been increasingly recognized and institutionalized. Aside from its importance as a structural element of the Welfare State, health care plays a leading role in generating innovation. Despite this, the productive base of Brazil’s health care system is extremely fragile, jeopardizing both the universal provision of health care services and the country’s competitive insertion in the globalized environment. This suggests the need for a more systematic analysis of the complex relationships that exist between the technological and the social interests involved in the productive base of health care provision in Brazil. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to enhance our understanding of the productive base of health care, especially given its potential to contribute to a socially inclusive development model, which is the ultimate goal in Brazil.

Technological Development Policies; Health Care Sector Economics; Health Sciences; Technology and Innovation Management; Policies and Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation

Grabois Gadelha, C. , Costa, L. , de Varge Maldonado, J. , Barbosa, P. and Vargas, M. (2013) The health care economic-industrial complex: Concepts and general characteristics. Health, 5, 1607-1621. doi: 10.4236/health.2013.510217.