The Social Medicine Institute of Rio de Janeiro State University (IMS-UERJ) , created in the late 1960s, built a singular trajectory in collective health, given its characteristics of respect for free ideas and debates, understanding of the important relationship among disciplines in health care and, above all, the institution’s prime for the critical spirit and commitment to the Brazilian social reality. Since 1990, the institute amplified the discussion on human resources for health and, in 1999, it became part of the Human Resources for Health Observatory Network, an initiative of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in partnership with Brazil’s Ministry of Health..

In its trail for excellence, the IMS/UERJ Workstation has been consolidating, since its foundation, its vocation for developing human resources management information systems and amplifying its production field with studies turned to evaluating public policies in human resources and to analyze the health labour market. The increase of the production capacity of the station resulted in educational opportunities for graduation and post-graduation students, promoting and stimulating the elaboration of monographs, dissertations and theses that became other forms of knowledge production in this field.

The IMS/UERJ Workstation, with nationwide performance, developed tradition in knowledge production to support policy-making in the fields of management, education and regulation of human resources in health.

Both national and international recognitions of the consolidation of the human resources field at IMS gained visibility when, in May 2008, the workstation – unit within the Health Planning and Administration Department at IMS/UERJ, obtained the status of PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for Health Workforce Planning and Information.