“…All articles published in Brazil used health problems to trace healthcare (11)(12)(15)(16)(17) , as well as two published in Mexico (13)(14) , one in Canada (19) , one in Italy (27) and two in the United States (20)(21) . The articles included in this study used the following tracer conditions: users of psychiatric services (11) , cardiovascular disease (12) , quality of pediatric services provided at the three healthcare levels (13) . In primary care, the tracer conditions were anemia and child growth; in secondary care, tracer conditions were low weight and congenital hypothyroidism, and in tertiary care, the tracer conditions were respiratory distress syndrome, anemia (20) , chronic kidney disease (14) , cervical cancer (17) , home care and its coordination in the local system (16) through users' election of two cases of success and three cases of difficult solution, use of the healthcare network in an efficient and effective manner (21) and use of drugs to evaluate the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (19,27) .…”