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The production of articles resulting from biomedical, clinical, and public health studies that originated in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela from 1973 through 1992 was analyzed to discover trends in health research in Latin America. From the database of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), 41,238 articles with first authors who resided in those countries were extracted. These articles were analyzed by subject area, type of study, country, number of authors and institutions that participated in the investigation, and citations received by each article. Also analyzed were 95 articles in epidemiology selected from a pool of 570 published by authors from the six countries in 11 public health journals that enjoy international prestige. The results showed that the number of published works increased by 117% between the first and last five-year periods within the study period. Clinical research was distributed the most evenly among the countries, and public health research was the most concentrated (60.7% originated in Brazil). The numbers of biomedical and public health research articles showed relatively more growth than those reporting on clinical research throughout the period. A relative decrease was found in articles by only one author, which suggests a greater frequency of team efforts, and an increase was seen in articles with authors tied to two or more national or foreign institutions, which indicates greater cooperation between institutions and countries. The average number of citations received by each article was 3, which was less than half the number received by the articles in the ISI database (7.78). Regarding the subset of 95 articles in epidemiology, the great majority (96%) dealt with infectious diseases or maternal and child health, while in the international literature 78% of such articles were about chronic diseases. This group of articles gave evidence of more cooperation with international institutions and had a citation index of 4.36 per article. It is concluded that, despite the inherent limitations, this type of study reveals some general trends in the development of research in the six Latin American countries with the greatest scientific production and makes it possible to formulate hypotheses on the factors that influence these trends. Taken with the paper caution, the results of studies like this one can be of great value in defining health science and technology policies.

The model for evaluation of the curriculum of a medical course presented in this paper was designed and used in the academic evaluation done in the School of Medicine of Lisandro Alvarado West-Central University, in Venezuela. The model includes an evaluation of program structures, the formulation of objectives, consistency among objectives, subject matter and exercises and between the institution's activities and objectives, the balance between theoretical and practical instruction, and the vertical transfer of the curriculum. Matrices were designed for all the variables used in the evaluation, and permitted the identification of relevant and irrelevant subject matter and of shortcomings in the curriculum that were hindrances to learning.

The subject of this paper is the importance of preventive and social medicine in medical education; it presents a study based on an examination of the function of these subjects with particular reference to the Luís Razetti School of Medicine. The authors assert that, in the present state of medical education, the new physician is unprepared to deal with the country's real needs. The purposes of the medical school are to turn out personnel who can mesh effectively into the operations of health systems, to do research and identify health problems of the community, to participate in the framing of health policies, and to train teaching staff who are socially aware and thus in tune with the country's health policies. Despite much discussion and study of the subject, little has been done in practice. The authors state their views and assert that the universities must draw up the curricula for their medical schools with an eye to the needs of the countries and with emphasis on preventive and social medicine.