In 1976, the Ministry of Health has established a national model of the death certificate (DO), the base of the Mortality Information System (MIS) of Brazil.
The DO has two main objectives:
I. be the standard document to the collection of information on mortality used in the calculation of the vital and epidemiological statistics, health situation analysis and planning of Health's shares in the country;
II. is constituted in the legal document - as provisions of Law of Public Records: Law 6,015 / 73 - to draw up the death certificate by the Civil Registry Offices, indispensable procedure to legal burial formalities.
continuing education tool aimed at all doctors, especially those who work in hospitals, Medical-Legal Institutes, Coroner Services and the Family Health teams, this document provides precise information about the filling, responsibilities and conditions under which the DO should be issued.
It is essential the commitment and doctor's commitment to truthfulness, completeness and reliability of the information recorded in the DO. The doctor is the professional responsible for the information contained in the death certificate.