An Infrastructure to Support the Visual Analysis of Data from the Brazilian Public Health System Carlos H. A. do Nascimento 1* , Glauco de Figueiredo Carneiro 1* , Ed Santana M. Costa 1 , Ethan V. Munson 2 1 Universidade Salvador (UNIFACS), Salvador, BA, Brazil. 2 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA. * Corresponding authors. Email: carloshelano@unifacs.br, glauco.carneiro@unifacs.br Manuscript submitted April 1, 2017; accepted August 12, 2017 . doi: 10.17706/jsw.12.8.612-630 Abstract: Understanding how Brazilian health units have been reimbursed due to services provided on behalf of the Brazilian Public Unified Health System (SUS) is not a simple task. It requires the analysis of a myriad of data and hampers the identification of flaws as well as improvement opportunities regarding the budget application in the context of health public services. In this paper, we proposed an infrastructure to support the visual analysis of data from SUS related to services provided by licensed health units. To illustrate the use of proposed infrastructure, we conducted an example of use that analyzes the performance of licensed health units from the Brazilian Northeast region in a specific time interval. Key words: Brazilian public unified health system, health information systems, information visualization. 1. Introduction Public health plays an important role for citizens and has drawn attention of both policymakers and the public at large. Concerns about gaps in both the availability and quality of public health services have hit the headlines in response to both new and persistent health risks [1]. For this reason, decision makers and practitioners must be careful about the allocation, management, and administration of public health resources [2]. The effectiveness of health care expenditure is a worldwide concern and this is not an exception in Brazil [3]. Brazil's citizens expect the public health system to make appropriate use of out-of-pocket health expenses. In 1988, within the new Constitution, the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) was created by the Brazilian Ministry of Health to offer free health care to the population, based on three pillars: universal coverage, integral health care and equity [3]. In 1991 the Information Systems Department of SUS, called DATASUS, was created to support the Ministry of Health in developing and maintaining software systems to process data in the health domain. Table 1 presents the software systems maintained by DATASUS. The Decentralized Hospital Information System (SIHD) registers health unit admissions. Data related to these admissions are provided monthly by the health units that provide services to citizens on behalf of SUS 1 . The SUS health unit Information System (SIHSUS) supports the management of the medical billing invoices sent by health units from all parts of the country that provide services on behalf of SUS 2 . This software system deals with invoices related to the cost of stays in health units and is the focus of analysis in this paper. The main reason for this choice is the considerable amount of data related to the topic and the 1 https://goo.gl/ObVSdg. 2 https://goo.gl/2ecW4d. 609 Volume 12, Number 8, August 2017 Journal of Software