Enhancing Interprofessional Community Engagement and Humanistic Interactions in Health Professional Education in Salvador, Brazil: The Programa Candeal Experience.

This article evaluates Programa Candeal, an interprofessional health education program at the Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health in Salvador, Brazil, designed to enhance health professional students' ability to work collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams and engage with socioeconomically marginalized communities. A mixed-methods retrospective survey of 83 alumni found that the program effectively promoted community engagement, improved teamwork skills, and fostered more humanistic, patient-centered approaches toward underserved populations. Participants reported increased involvement in community outreach following the program and greater comfort working across health disciplines, though some noted variability in experience related to group facilitation. The study also demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a low-cost, online evaluation system in a resource-limited educational setting to support ongoing program assessment and improvement.