The field of postgraduate medical education faces sharp criticism against certain weaknesses regarding production, dissemination and use of new knowledge, and it is expected that professors promote technical skills and relevant levels of epistemological study. The objective was to analyze the manifestations of postgraduate programs coordinators regarding theoretical frameworks, meanings and differences between the disciplinary, multi, inter and transdisciplinary approaches. During 2008, seven interviews were recorded; in general, they revealed that there were difficulties in the recognition of the mentioned approaches, justified by their own training as doctors and researchers. Non-theoretical notions tended to be expressed, but they were apparently supported by their professional practices and clinical knowledge, which historically deal with complex clinical research subjects. It is argued that there should be an expansion of the possibilities of pedagogical managements grounded on the precepts of the emerging paradigm, which are possibly already employed and taught, even informally, in the years of clinical training.
Health postgraduate programs; Medical education; Research; Epistemology; Paradigm