Redefining social medicine from Latin America: Historical foundations and contemporary directions

This article examines the contemporary meaning of social medicine, a field marked by its porous boundaries, plurality, and contestation. Rather than offering a fixed definition, we trace its shifting forms across time, geography, and politics, positioning it as a “boundary object” that adapts to diverse contexts while retaining a minimal common identity. Comparative discussion with medical anthropology, social studies of medicine, global health, underscores social medicine’s distinct focus on structural determinants, inequities, and justice. We propose three elements that could be the basic common elements of social medicine, drawing on foundational tenets of Latin American Social Medicine for this classification: 1) political commitment to social justice, 2) the central role of social sciences, and 3) participatory methodologies rooted in community participation. We highlight how these elements informed transformative reforms while also noting how institutionalization sometimes diluted revolutionary impulses into bureaucratic logics. Finally, we analyze how these basic common elements of social medicine identified through the Latin American case are manifested in other historical currents within the field and in contemporary expressions of “protest medicine”. In these contexts, health professionals and volunteers provide care, document state violence, and transform medical testimony into political action. By situating these practices at the intersection of grassroots militancy and institutional incorporation, the article reflects on the enduring tensions and possibilities of social medicine as a global, evolving project oriented toward health equity and social justice.