Privileged space for intellectual exchange among physicians of the hinterland and illustrious figures of national science, Medical Congress of Central Brazil, which began in 1947, also figured as claim space to the public authorities. Based on published regional medical journals, in the minutes of the Medical Association of Goiás meetings and speech of local doctors, I analyze the organization, objectives and main themes of these congresses, whose emphasis was focused on diseases that most afflict inhabitants of the hinterland. In a political context in which rural endemic diseases were highlighted, physicians working in the region gained visibility just by searching these maladies, promoting a national scientific network interested in tropical diseases. The success of these events followed the medicine institutionalization process in Goiás, whose hallmark is the foundation of Goiás Medical School in 1960, final timeframe of this article.
Goiás State; Medical Congress; Tropical Diseases
