The unit of analysis was a Municipal Health Ombudsman, in the state of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil, between May and August 2010. The study was observational in nature and data were collected through interviews with two groups

of stakeholders: users and municipal health counselors. We interviewed 44 Unified Health System users who had made direct use of the Municipal Health Ombudsman and all 20 municipal health counselors. The data obtained were analyzed based on three issues: (1) nature of the data obtained; (2) discussion of subsidies to qualify the ombudsman’s functioning as a management tool; (3) proposals for actions to improve democratic management in the area of public health. RESULTS: The complaints to the ombudsman denoted difficulties in access to AL3818 health care services running the risk of their being perceived as shortcuts to gaining accessibility,

disregarding the principle of social justice. The role of the ombudsman has the citizens’ approval. Users reported CCI-779 cell line the following main functions of the ombudsman: to support the resolution of health problems, to listen and to clarify issues regarding Unified Health System operations and procedures. Information was emphasized by health counselors as an instrument of power and access to the rights of Unified Health System users. They highlighted that the ombudsman has the role of ensuring justice to foster an effective health policy, besides playing an important mediating role between the board of the municipal health system, its managers and citizens. Furthermore, the ombudsman was shown to have an execution role that transcends its regular functions. CONCLUSIONS: The study found that the ombudsman is a key management tool in monitoring NVP-AUY922 supplier the health care system. Therefore, the establishment of the ombudsman is an advance in the field of democratic management. Nevertheless, there are challenges to be overcome in order to improve ombudsman contribution to the execution of health

policies and representing citizens in ensuring their rights to health care.”
“A quantitative bioanalytical liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) assay for sepantronium bromide (YM155), an inhibitor of survivin, was developed and validated. Under reduced light exposure, plasma samples were pre-treated using protein precipitation with acetonitrile containing AT7519 as internal standard. After dilution with water, the extract was directly injected into the reversed-phase liquid chromatographic system. The eluate was transferred into the electrospray interface with positive ionization and compounds detected in the selected reaction monitoring mode of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The assay was validated in a 0.5-100 ng/ml calibration range with r(2) = 0.9981 +/- 0.0007 using double logarithmic calibration (n = 5). Within day precisions (n = 6) were 3.6-8.8% and between day (3 days; n = 18) precisions 6.5-11.1%.