This paper discusses the role distance education plays in the training of health professionals, in particular with regard to the democratization of opportunities, in the context of the strategies for the consolidation of the Brazilian Health System (SUS). Grounded on the experience of the Course of Pedagogical Training in Professional Education in the Area of Health: Nursing (run by the Secretariat of Health Work and Education Management of the Ministry of Health), the text presents strategies that, in this modality, are able to introduce pedagogical proposals related to the kind of public policies that, regarding education in the area of health as a social right, attempt to respond to the demands for this type of education. Verifying the need for more projects of this nature in the field of health, and being aware of the fears both teachers and pupils have of the 'electronic sirens' singing' and of the risk that this type of training may become too superficial or too detached from reality, we reaffirm our belief that distance education is, more than anything else, genuine education.
distance education; training in the area of health; teachers' training; public policies