ABSTRACT:
Teleconsultation has consolidated as a relevant strategy within Primary Health Care (PHC) in Brazil’s Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS), particularly since 2020, following the publication of Ordinance GM/MS No. 526/2020, which regulated the registration of this procedure1. This study aimed to describe teleconsultations performed by nurses in Brazil between 2020 and 2025. This is a descriptive, quantitative study based on public, secondary data obtained from the Primary Health Care Information System (SISAB)2 for the corresponding period. Between 2020 and 2025, a total of 683,097 nurse-led teleconsultations were recorded across 1,955 Brazilian municipalities, with a marked concentration in 2021, which accounted for 45.4% of all records (n = 309,818), followed by a progressive decline in subsequent years. Teleconsultation production was concentrated in the Southeast (58.0%; n = 395,903) and South (23.9%; n = 163,415) regions, with the lowest relative participation observed in the North (8.8%; n = 60,366). More than half of the procedures were carried out in large municipalities (55.0%; n = 375,678). Most teleconsultations were recorded in municipalities classified as having low or very low social vulnerability (82.3%; n = 562,271). Municipalities located in the Legal Amazon accounted for 5.2% of the total production (n = 35,438), while border municipalities represented 4.1% (n = 28,305). Family Health Teams were responsible for the vast majority of records (91.5%; n = 625,016), followed by Primary Care Teams (8.2%; n = 56,176). Teleconsultation production by Street Outreach Teams and Prison Primary Care Teams was residual. The findings indicate that nurse-led teleconsultation in PHC has been regionally concentrated in more populous and less socially vulnerable municipalities, highlighting persistent inequalities in the adoption of this technology and underscoring the need for targeted strategies to expand its use in more complex and socially vulnerable care settings.