Implementation of health technologies in Brazil: analysis of federal guidelines for the public health system

This study aimed to identify the reg-ulatory framework and federal guidelines that support the process of implementing health tech-nologies in the Unified Health System (SUS) through analysis of documents and legislation related to the National Health Technology Man-agement Policy, published between 2009 and 2021. The search and selection of documents and subsequent data extraction were carried out. The documents were grouped into three categories: structural regulatory documents, recommenda-tions on evaluation of technologies, and recom-mendations on clinical guidelines. In 38.8% of the regulatory documents, citations to implemen-tation related mainly to SUS clinical guidelines were identified; however, no document dedicated to guiding implementation actions was identi-fied. Recommendations related to implementa-tions were identified in 27.1% of the reports and 66.1% of the guidelines, although without stan-dardization and, in general, in little detail, focus-ing on resources and actions needed for making technology available rather than on methods and interventions for its implementation. The results evidence a gap in formal guidelines to guide the implementation process in Brazil, representing an opportunity for the development of models aligned with the reality of the SUS.