[The case study method applied to medical teaching]

Recently, new proposals have been formulated in the field of Medical Education, and the authors believe that the problem-solving method deserves special attention, because it can make students and teachers more motivated and participants. It can be used in places of different levels of complexity where the binomium teaching-health occurs. The assumptions to adopt this method, the nature of the cognitive process to formulate diagnostic impressions and the necessary steps to make them possible are discussed.