[Delineation of the professional role of health education specialists: a technical proposal]

The responsibilities, competencies and subcompetencies of the Health Education Specialists of the State Health Department of S. Paulo are assessed in this study with a view to verifying the agreement, or otherwise, between the proposals for the technical activity of these health professionals in Brazil and in the United States. With this end in view the document entitled "A Framework for the Development of Competency-based Curricula for Entry--level Health Education" was utilized as the basis for the questions included in the questionnaires submitted to health educators. The results describe the degree of importance attributed to the technical responsibilities and the frequency with which these are performed in the service network of the State Health Department of S. Paulo, Brazil.