{"id":243694,"date":"2017-07-27T17:38:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T20:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=243694\/"},"modified":"2017-07-27T18:52:17","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T21:52:17","slug":"growing-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/growing-demands\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing demands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-243695\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252.jpg 900w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252-700x866.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252-120x148.jpg 120w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252-250x309.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The fifth floor of the State Department of Health building in downtown S\u00e3o Paulo is where, on any given day, you will find attorney Renata Santos and her team of 35 as they deal with the benefits and obstacles that arise from one of the greatest challenges to face public management in recent times: the supply of medicines mandated by court order.\u00a0 In the last five years, there has been a 92% increase in the number of legal proceedings brought by patients to compel the State to provide drugs and treatments that are not offered under the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) or that have not yet been registered in Brazil.\u00a0 In 2015 alone, the S\u00e3o Paulo State government spent R$1.2 billion on medicines and pharmaceutical supplies for 57,000 patients who had gone to court. \u201cThis sum is almost enough to keep the Hospital das Cl\u00ednicas [at the School of Medicine of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (HC-FM-USP)], which treats 35,000 patients a day, running for a year,\u201d says Santos.<\/p>\n<p>The phenomenon known as judicialization of health is multifaceted.\u00a0 On one hand, legal actions commit a significant portion of the budget to meet the specific demands of some patients; on the other hand, they can represent the only path forward to save or prolong the lives of patients, especially those suffering from rare or chronic diseases, such as diabetes or cancer, who depend on costly medications.\u00a0 There is also the use of this last resort for medicines that are equivalent to those available under the public health system, or even to purchase products such as diapers or coconut water\u2014always through prescription.\u00a0 In recent years, the team from the state health department has worked with researchers from S\u00e3o Paulo universities to establish information systems that could support decisions by judges and industry administrators as a way to promote inclusion of medicines most frequently requested under the public system.<\/p>\n<p>The partnerships between teams from the state health department and research institutions receive support through a computer program called S-Codes, established in 2010 by the Office of Coordination of Strategic Demands (CODES) of SUS, part of the S\u00e3o Paulo State Health Department that manages the lawsuits brought against the state of S\u00e3o Paulo. \u00a0The S-Codes program has demonstrated that 60% of the court rulings stem from prescriptions from physicians in the private health system, in other words, from offices, clinics and private hospitals.\u00a0 An assumption supported by Santos to explain this fact is that, generally speaking, private network physicians are not familiar with health laws and the list of drugs included under the public network, the Brazilian Ministry of Health\u2019s Essential Medicines List (RENAME). \u201cThis is why,\u201d she says, \u201ctherapeutic alternatives already available under SUS, similar to those requested, end up being overlooked by physicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The S-Codes program has become a key element in studies conducted under the scope of the Research in Public Policies Program for the National Health Care System (PP-SUS), funded by the Ministry of Health in partnership with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and led in S\u00e3o Paulo by FAPESP and the State Department of Health. The program supports research studies aimed at vital health problems and at strengthening SUS management in S\u00e3o Paulo. In recent years, the issue of judicialization of health has gained prominence among research projects presented to the program.\u00a0 In one of them, accountant Carlos Alberto Grespan Bonacim, a professor in the USP School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting in Ribeir\u00e3o Preto, examined the socioeconomic profile of patients based on a sample of approximately 900 lawsuits filed from 2013 through June 2015, leading to the release of nearly 8,000 medicines in 27 municipalities of the Ribeir\u00e3o Preto region. The city is one of three having the highest rate of health lawsuits in the state\u2013the others are Barretos and S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 do Rio Preto.<\/p>\n<p>On the basis of the S-Codes, Bonacim found that 66% of the medicines obtained through court order were not on the SUS list.\u00a0 The remaining 34% were already being supplied through the public network, but the patients had either requested versions produced by other companies, or those that reflected certain technological improvements. Another study, this one by Brazilian anthropologist Jo\u00e3o Biehl at Princeton University, published in 2016 in the <em>Health and Human Rights Journal<\/em>, found that out of a total of 3,468 medicines requested through lawsuits filed against the state of Rio Grande do Sul in 2008, more than half (56%) were supplied under the SUS.<\/p>\n<p>Physicians and researchers say that it is not always the latest generation of medicine that is the most effective among those already adopted by the SUS.\u00a0 One example is at the A.C.Camargo Cancer Center, in S\u00e3o Paulo, which provides care through the SUS and through private consultation. Patients treated by private providers may have access to two new medicines used to treat breast cancer: trastuzumab emtansine and pertuzumab. When associated with chemotherapy, they can prolong a woman\u2019s life from three to five years.\u00a0 Although they were approved in 2014 by the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), the Brazilian federal agency that regulates the registration of food and medicines, and have been released for sale in Brazil, the two drugs were not approved by the National Committee for Technology Incorporation (CONITEC) in the SUS, an agency established in 2011 under the purview of the Ministry of Health, and are therefore not available through the public network. \u201cTreatment with these medicines costs the patient nearly R$30,000 per month.\u00a0 The total cost of their inclusion under the SUS would be impracticable for the government, since every year, there are nearly 50,000 new cases of breast cancer in Brazil,\u201d says Helano Freitas, clinical research coordinator at S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s A.C.Camargo Cancer Center. Even without access to these state-of-the-art drugs, users under the SUS treated at the hospital are not at a disadvantage. \u201cOther medicines provided under the health system are equally effective and can increase patient survival,\u201d he says.\u00a0 Freitas goes on to say that most patients at A.C.Camargo who resort to lawsuits to receive medications generally have more access to information and enjoy higher socioeconomic status.<\/p>\n<p>But that is not always the case. The average income of patients filing lawsuits in the Ribeir\u00e3o Preto region is just over R$1,000 according to the study by USP\u2019s Bonacim. He says that this data helps show that judicialization is not a phenomenon related to just those at higher income levels.\u00a0 \u201cPatients with fewer resources turn to the state\u2019s public defenders who provide legal assistance at no charge.\u201d Even so, 60% of the patients analyzed from the region of Ribeir\u00e3o Preto hired a private attorney.<\/p>\n<p>In the last seven years, the Ministry of Health has disbursed R$4.5 billion on the purchase of medicines, equipment, food supplements and the coverage of court-ordered surgeries and admissions (<a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cost_252.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>see graph<\/em><\/a>). Most of these federal lawsuits originate in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul. Including costs to states and municipalities, the federal government calculates that expenditures for the purchase of medicines by court order reached R$7 billion last year. A substantial proportion of this amount was used for high-cost drugs. In 2016, the Ministry of Health spent R$654.9 million on the purchase of just 10 medicines to meet the demands of 1,213 people (<a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/expensive_252.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>see list<\/em><\/a>). In S\u00e3o Paulo, 4% of the medicines use up more than 90% of the costs of that state\u2019s lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/expensive_252.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-243696\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/expensive_252-936x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"328\" \/><\/a>Anvisa registration<\/strong><br \/>\nThe list of the most expensive medicines purchased by the federal government includes six that are not registered with ANVISA. One of them is lomitapide, approved in the United States for use by those who suffer from a rare genetic disease known as homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.\u00a0 Treatment using this medicine costs nearly $1,000 per day.\u00a0 The fact that a medicine is not registered with ANVISA means it has no official authorization to be sold on a large-scale in Brazil because, just as in the drug\u2019s country of origin, it has not undergone all the preclinical and clinical trials\u2014in animal and human models, respectively\u2014necessary for ensuring its safety and efficacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJudges do not generally have technical\/scientific background on all aspects inherent to a medicine, such as regulation concerning its use, nor an intimate understanding of the SUS, which makes the drugs available according to scientifically established criteria,\u201d says Maria Aparecida Nicoletti, a researcher at the USP School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is taking part in a PP-SUS project to adapt Spain\u2019s D\u00e1der method of pharmacotherapeutic monitoring of patients, in the School Pharmacy of USP (FARMUSP), with a view towards employing it in Primary Healthcare Units (PHU) in S\u00e3o Paulo and generating information to support the court orders. In this study, a group of patients with prostate cancer initially treated at the Hospital of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo with medicines already available under the SUS are now engaging in pharmaceutical consultations that assess the effectiveness of the drugs and possible interactions among them. \u201cWe\u2019re working with patients who not only have cancer, but may also be suffering from depression, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and cardiovascular problems that they are taking medicines for,\u201d Nicoletti explains.<\/p>\n<p>The researcher says that this method is being implemented in other parts of Brazil, although not extensively. \u201cWe need to step up pharmacotherapeutic monitoring, especially with regard to high-cost medicines, and to compile data and publish our findings,\u201d Nicoletti says. She thinks that the method may also help monitor off-label drug use, a common issue in the lawsuits.\u00a0 The expression refers to situations in which the physician prescribes a medication to treat a condition for which the product was not originally designed. There are cases where off-label use ends up characterized as medical error, while in other cases it may work.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/lawsuits_252.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-243697\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/lawsuits_252-300x190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a>In municipalities<\/strong><br \/>\nAt the University of Sorocaba (UNISO), a research group is working within the PP-SUS to conduct pharmacotherapeutic monitoring of patients and develop a computerized system similar to that used by the state department of health.\u00a0 The difference is that JudSys, the name given to the program, focuses on demands from municipalities and includes a clinical module that allows organization of technical data concerning the use of medicines obtained through pharmaceutical consultations.\u00a0 \u201cWe ran pilot tests in municipalities in the Sorocaba region such as Votorantim and S\u00e3o Roque to assess feasibility and functionality of JudSys, and now we\u2019re making adjustments to offer it to other interested municipalities,\u201d explains pharmacist Silvio Barberato Filho, a UNISO professor and project coordinator.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Barberato\u2019s group began a partnership with the Pharmacy School of the University of Bras\u00edlia (UnB), in the Federal District, to test the JudSys clinical module. There, 15 diabetic patients are being monitored for their use of insulin analogs, one of the medicines most often sought through court order. Just as at USP, patients at UnB are treated by pharmacists who record data about use of the drugs and make recommendations. The results of the monitoring are expected to be organized in the coming months and new data about insulin analog use will be published. \u201cInsulin analogs were not incorporated under the SUS but some states and municipalities have defined clinical protocols and included the medicines on their local lists,\u201d Barberato says.<\/p>\n<p>Concern about the impact of judicialization in municipalities is justifiable.\u00a0 There are cases in which a single lawsuit can compromise a small city\u2019s entire health budget.\u00a0 Some initiatives are seeking to get around this through institutional arrangements.\u00a0 One of the most memorable examples involved Santa Catarina State. In 1997, 25 municipalities in the vicinity of the city of Lages, 200 kilometers from Florian\u00f3polis, joined forces to find better ways to manage their health resources, frequently affected by judicialization.\u00a0 Mayors and city managers had realized that it was much more difficult to deal with court orders on their own. Through an inter-municipal consortium, they established a common standard of action that prevented overlaps in requests and streamlined expenses and investments, this according to Roseni Pinheiro and Felipe Asensi, professors at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), in an article published in the <em>Revista de Direito Sanit\u00e1rio <\/em>in July 2016. The article emerged from a study coordinated by both Pinheiro and Asensi in partnership with the National Council of Justice (CNJ).<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, the consortium launched the Medicine Reconciliation Center to handle requests for drugs that had not yet been sought through legal channels. In a room made available by the Lages city hall, a multidisciplinary team talks to patients interested in filing lawsuits, suggests the use of generic versions of the medicines they requested and advises replacing the physician who wrote the prescription, before the request makes its way to the courts.\u00a0 According to the researchers, \u201cthe integration between state and municipal health agencies, patients, public defenders, public advocacy groups and federal prosecutors has led to a reduction in the number of legal disputes.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_243700\" style=\"max-width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/018_judi_01_252.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-243700\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/018_judi_01_252-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/a> Prostate cancer patient undergoes pharmacotherapeutic monitoring at the School Pharmacy of USP, in S\u00e3o Paulo<span class=\"media-credits\">Eduardo Cesar<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>In S\u00e3o Paulo, an initiative announced in December 2016 is also seeking to promote interaction between participants involved in court requests for medicines. The State Department of Health, the Supreme Court, the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Office of the Public Defender have executed a cooperation agreement that establishes a protocol for the flow of triage services and pharmaceutical advice to SUS users. \u201cThe idea is for trained professionals to assess physicians\u2019 prescriptions before the patients make a decision to file a lawsuit with the courts.\u00a0 It is a way to verify the possibility of presenting the physician and patient with alternative therapies supplied under the SUS, when possible,\u201d explains Sylvio Ribeiro de Souza Neto, assistant judge on the S\u00e3o Paulo State Supreme Court (TJSP). Renata Santos, at the department of health, believes the initiative is an opportunity for dialogue between public administrators and the judicial branch. \u201cWe would like the judges to understand that the health department wants to treat patients using the best medical techniques available, without economic restrictions. We have a budget to be used on health.\u00a0 What we are looking for are the best ways to use these public funds to serve the largest possible number of people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Also in late 2016, the CNJ and the Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Hospital S\u00edrio-Liban\u00eas, announced a project to expand judges\u2019 use of science-based information and improve judgments in legal disputes.\u00a0 The agreement calls for the expansion of Health Technology Assessment Centers (HTAs) whose task is to assist courts throughout Brazil by issuing opinions and technical notes about medicines.\u00a0 In November 2016, the first HTA training and development workshop brought together court representatives from 10 states in Brazil. \u201cWe addressed topics such as drafting and standardizing technical notes,\u201d says Luiz Reis of the Hospital S\u00edrio-Liban\u00eas, where the meeting was held.<\/p>\n<p>According to Arnaldo Hossepian Salles Lima Junior, advisor to the CNJ and supervisor of the National Forum on Health, the partnership with the hospital includes establishing a database containing technical information based on scientific evidence that can be accessed by judges all over Brazil. \u201cThe idea is that before making any decision, the judge would consult the database available on the CNJ website and access information about medicines, procedures and the like that are part of a patient\u2019s request. Armed with this information, the judge could know, for example, if there is a similar drug under the SUS and if the requested drug is really effective,\u201d Hossepian explains. \u00a0The Hospital S\u00edrio-Liban\u00eas is expected to invest nearly R$15 million over three years to build the framework for the platform.\u00a0 The scientific information that will be fed into it will be provided by opinions issued by the HTAs, CONITEC and the Cochrane Center, an international organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark that analyzes series of clinical studies in search of evidence of treatment efficacy.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2016, the CNJ approved a resolution that provides for the establishment and maintenance of the State Health Committees, already set up in some states, whose role is to discuss health issues and assist the work of the judges.\u00a0 One of the most active committees is from the state of Minas Gerais and is made up of members from the federal and state judiciary and representatives from health plans, the Office of the Public Prosecutor, the Santa Casa Hospitals and universities including the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Osvaldo Firmo, chief justice on the Minas Gerais State Supreme Court (TJMG) and a member of the state health committee of the CNJ, points out that the judges place high value on technical guidance.\u00a0 \u201cThe trouble is that no one wants to run the risk of being complicit in anyone\u2019s death,\u201d he remarks. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comitesaudemg.com.br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The committee\u2019s website<\/a> provides a series of recommendations for the judges, in addition to technical notes and links to books and articles about judicialization.<\/p>\n<p>Sylvio Ribeiro of the TJSP recalls the time he spent on the front lines, judging health cases. \u201cNo matter how much scientific data we have at hand, it\u2019s distressing to know that a negative response from us can lead to the loss of health or even to someone\u2019s death,\u201d he says. Renata Santos from the state health department asserts that the patient\u2019s defense is almost always based on the risk of death in the event that the medicine is not provided.\u00a0 However, the S-Codes have indicated that in a considerable proportion of court decisions there is no risk of irreparable damage to the patient.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/measures_252.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-243698\" src=\"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/measures_252-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a>Often, in addition to medicines, the legal requests include items already provided under the SUS such as disposable diapers, or that go beyond medical treatment, such as wet wipes, sunscreen and coconut water that physicians consider appropriate for their patients.\u00a0 For this reason, the health department has to provide 69 different kinds of diapers to 4,000 people, at an annual cost of R$12.6 million.\u00a0 \u201cAn increasing number of people are asking to buy medicines and products already available under the public system.\u00a0 The SUS supplies acetylsalicylic acid, but patients still go to court to request another brand of analgesic,\u201d Santos says.<\/p>\n<p>She does not rule out the influence the pharmaceutical industry plays as a premise for judicialization.\u00a0 Recently published studies show that the influence of companies in the industry extends to patient groups and associations. A research study published in January 2017 in <em>JAMA Internal Medicine<\/em> by Susannah Rose of Case Western Reserve University of Ohio, investigated nearly 300 patient advocacy groups in the United States and discovered that 67% of them had received funding from pharmaceutical companies in the past year.\u00a0 According to public authorities, there are signs that industry pressures are similar in Brazil and end up contributing to the increase in judicialization by creating new demands for medicines.\u00a0 Court orders also have other effects.\u00a0 \u201cThere are cases in which decisions by the courts have provided impetus to the SUS in instances where repeat awards for a single drug or procedure alerted them to the need for inclusions of technology and medicines,\u201d Santos says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rare diseases<\/strong><br \/>\nFor those who suffer from rare diseases, legal channels may be the only way to obtain extremely expensive medicines.\u00a0 One example involves patients who suffer from paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare type of inherited anemia that causes such illnesses as chronic kidney disease and pulmonary hypertension. The medicine indicated in this case is eculizumab, whose brand name is Soliris, still pending registration by ANVISA. In 2016, Soliris represented the largest expense to the Ministry of Health in lawsuits: R$391.8 million to treat 336 patients.<\/p>\n<p>One argument commonly used by patients who turn to the courts to obtain the so-called exceptional medications, which are very expensive, is rooted in the Federal Constitution, according to which health is a right of all and a duty of the State. \u201cThe problem is that the individual right is outweighing the collective right,\u201d says Luiza Heimann, director of the S\u00e3o Paulo State Institute of Health, an institution associated with the state health department that conducts health technology assessment studies. \u201cCaring for the health of citizens does not mean looking after the health of the sum of all sick individuals.\u00a0 It means coming up with a plan based on the population\u2019s epidemiological profile,\u201d Heimann explains.\u00a0 She says that every four years, a National Health Conference is held where SUS managers, employees and representatives of organized civil society set SUS priorities for the coming years, on the basis of epidemiological studies. For Judge Osvaldo Firmo of the TJMG, this means that health policies have to ensure the entire population equal access to treatment, without preference. \u201cThe procedures for adding medicines in Brazil comply with the criteria that favor the purchase of large volumes of medicines for the greatest possible number of people,\u201d Firmo says.<\/p>\n<p>In industrialized nations, especially in Europe, the problem of judicialization is practically nonexistent.\u00a0 \u201cCountries like Italy, France and the United Kingdom have universal health systems that have matured over the decades,\u201d explains Jos\u00e9 Gomes Tempor\u00e3o, Minister of Health from 2007 to 2011. \u201cThe population of those countries knows there are limitations on the State\u2019s ability to provide medicines.\u00a0 Patients accept the treatment available under the system and do not even entertain the notion of filing lawsuits, except in extreme cases such as in rare diseases,\u201d Tempor\u00e3o says. In the view of Denizar Vianna Ara\u00fajo, a researcher at UERJ, the judicialization of health has been an essentially Latin American phenomenon. \u201cFaced with a \u2018no\u2019 from the government, citizens are encouraged to seek salvation in the court system.\u00a0 It is a strong cultural trait in Latin American countries,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Cl\u00e1udio Cordovil, a researcher at the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro, defends the need for changes in the system for adding medicines for rare diseases in Brazil.\u00a0 He says that the HTAs conducted by CONITEC to determine the addition of medicines covered under the SUS were originally established to make decisions about drugs intended to serve a large number of people.\u00a0 To Cordovil, the use of conventional HTA methodologies in the context of rare diseases, which affect specific groups of patients, is one of the factors that is promoting judicialization in Brazil.\u00a0 \u201cIf we apply conventional methodologies to decide on medicines for rare diseases, in practice we will never include any of these drugs under the SUS. The international literature has unequivocally determined this,\u201d the researcher says.<\/p>\n<p>Renata Santos is also using S-Codes to collect other little-known data about the consequences of purchasing medicines by court order.\u00a0 \u201cTwenty to thirty percent of the patients who file lawsuits in S\u00e3o Paulo do not come to retrieve the medicine released by the courts,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cAside from the cases in which patients have died, the main reason for not getting the medicine is that the person changes his mind, withdraws from the treatment and chooses something else.\u201d When possible, the department directs the drug to another patient, although more than half of the requests are for exclusive use, that is, each drug is prescribed for use by only one person.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the patient does not come to pick it up,\u201d she says,\u201d we store the medicine and once it expires, we have to burn it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Projects<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> 1.<\/strong> Management of health litigation in municipalities: a pharmacotherapeutic follow-up model (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bv.fapesp.br\/pt\/auxilios\/87145\/gestao-municipal-de-demandas-judiciais-na-saude-modelo-de-acompanhamento-farmacoterapeutico-de-paci\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">n\u00ba 2014\/06038-2<\/a>); <strong>Grant Mechanism<\/strong> Regular Research Grant; <strong>Principal Investigator<\/strong>\u00a0Silvio Barberato Filho (UNISO); <strong>Investment\u00a0<\/strong>R$ 103,297.39.<br \/>\n<strong>2.<\/strong> Factors affecting the process of health care litigation on the Regional Division of Health \u2013 DRS XII (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bv.fapesp.br\/pt\/auxilios\/85999\/fatores-condicionantes-dos-processos-de-judicializacao-na-divisao-regional-de-saude-drs-xii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">n\u00ba 2014\/50040-1<\/a>); <strong>Grant Mechanism<\/strong>\u00a0PP-SUS Grant; <strong>Principal Investigator<\/strong>\u00a0Carlos Alberto Grespan Bonacim (FEARP-USP); <strong>Investment<\/strong>\u00a0R$ 7,325.37.<br \/>\n<strong>3.<\/strong> Pharmacotherapeutic follow-up at the School Pharmacy of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bv.fapesp.br\/pt\/auxilios\/81795\/seguimento-farmacoterapeutico-de-pacientes-na-farmacia-universitaria-da-usp-pesquisa-clinica-fase-i\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">n\u00ba 2012\/51707-4<\/a>); <strong>Grant Mechanism<\/strong>\u00a0PP-SUS Grant; <strong>Principal Investigator<\/strong> Silvia Storpirtis (FCF-USP); <strong>Investment <\/strong>R$ 253,692.76.<\/p>\n<p><em>Scientific Articles<\/em><br \/>\nBIEHL, J. <em>et al<\/em>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhrjournal.org\/2016\/04\/the-judicialization-of-health-and-the-quest-for-state-accountability-evidence-from-1262-lawsuits-for-access-to-medicines-in-southern-brazil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The judicialization of health and the quest for accountability: Evidence from 1,262 lawsuits for access to medicines in Southern Brazil<\/a>. <strong>Health and Human Rights Journal<\/strong>. June 2016.<br \/>\nASENSI, F.; PINHEIRO, R. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.revistas.usp.br\/rdisan\/article\/view\/122306\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Judicializa\u00e7\u00e3o da sa\u00fade e di\u00e1logo institucional: A experi\u00eancia de Lages (SC)<\/a>. <strong>Revista do Direito Sanit\u00e1rio<\/strong>. V. 17, No. 2, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Partnerships seek to understand judicialization of health","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[225,390,260],"coauthors":[740],"class_list":["post-243694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover","tag-economy","tag-law","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243694"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=243694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}