[Municipal Monitoring Panel: Bases for building a health service management tool]

To describe and critically analyze the steps taken and the technical references used to build the São Paulo City Health Department Monitoring Panel, highlighting its potentials and limits for the decision-making process.

This was a qualitative study based on analysis of official documents and semi-structured interviews with key informants. The data was submitted to thematic analysis aimed at understanding the technical choices and paths taken to build the Panel.

The Panel provides numerical and graphical reports applying four statistical analysis models, thus facilitating access to information and data analysis by different management levels.

The Panel provides analysis options for different management levels, thus strengthening decentralized decisions. It is a streamlined and appropriate monitoring strategy as well as being able to be used in different management contexts and territory sizes.