[Research on professional health training in the MERCOSUR: a contribution to regional integration policies for training health technicians].

Progress with regional economic integration in the Southern Cone raises the problem of workers' circulation, requiring reciprocal recognition of curricula and mechanisms for professional certification. The Escola Politécnica de Saúde Joaquim Venâncio (Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic Health School) of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation), as a WHO Collaborating Center for Technical Education in Health, has focused on this issue by conducting studies and standardizations for the integration of training policies for health technicians within the MERCOSUR. An important challenge is to identify and systematize the quantitative and qualitative supply of technical education in health in the MERCOSUR member countries, to help establish commonalities between prevailing curricular regulations, titles, diplomas, and professional work codes in the respective countries. The purpose of the current article is to situate this challenge vis-à-vis the relationship between work, education, and health.