Background: The concepts of evidence-based health care have been introduced in different healthcare sectors in Brazil. Recently, the first improvement course in evidence-based health care was developed in Brazil for healthcare professionals in the Network of Sentinel Hospitals. Objective: To train healthcare professionals to make decisions based on the best available evidence, seeking to provide more benefits than risks to patients, and promoting the conscientious and economic use of technological and financial resources made available by the Ministry of Health when providing health care to the population. Methods: The course was the result of a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Teaching and Research Institute at the Hospital Sírio-Libanês (Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, IEP-HSL) and was organized and coordinated by Dr Álvaro Nagib Atallah. The content of the year-long course involved understanding the methodology for applying evidence-based health care. The 150 course hours were divided into weekly two-hour classes, year-round tutoring, weekly exercises and bimonthly evaluations (exams). The classes were taught online and were transmitted via live teleconference to a national network of 82 virtual classrooms in hospitals throughout Brazil. Results: Of the 1,374 students enrolled, 957 completed the course. All students received passing grades on the exams and handed in final projects to complete the course. The impact of this course was measured by means of personal, voluntary statements given by the students. We received more than 500 statements that indicated student satisfaction upon completion of the course. Conclusions: As a result of this experience, Brazil today has the largest evidence-based healthcare improvement course in the world, serving 3,000 healthcare professionals in hospitals that employ the rational use of medications, in healthcare services and in public and private hospitals.