[Carlos Gentile de Mello: in defense of institutional medicine].

The article analyzes the trajectory and thought of Carlos Gentile de Mello highlighting his contributions to the political and social debate on health between the 1960s and 1980s. He discusses the interfaces between the developmental project and health and addresses the expansion of the privatizing model especially the effects of the model on medical practice and the health of the population. The article analyzes the contribution of Gentile's analysis to the debate on Public Health and Brazilian Health Reform in the 1970s, especially on the political and institutional conditions for the project of universalization.