[Organization of scientific activity in health: problems and perspectives]

The author examines the present state of research in the countries of Latin American and the Caribbean, and the inconsistency between the increase of these activities and the lack of research policies in the health field. He reviews the constraints and problems in the Region--technical as well as institutional, economic and political--which hinder progress and undermine interest in the continuance of scientific work in health ministries. Finally, the reflections prompted by his analysis lead the author to a visualization of the possibilities and prospects for Latin America, predicated on a reorganization of institutions, the emergence of new policies, the identification of the relationships between economic and social development, and the part played in them by science and technology to bring about changes in the world.