Background: According to the Brazilian Constitution, health care is a right granted to all citizens and is the duty of the State, guaranteed by means of social and economic policies that seek to reduce the risk of illness and other injuries and by universal, equal access to healthcare services that promote said policies and that offer protection and recovery to citizens. Objective: To describe the implementation of the 1st Brazilian Congress of Evidence-Based Medicine and the Right to Healthcare, which took place in Brasilia from March 24-26, 2009. Methods: The Congress was jointly executed by the Brazilian Cochrane Centre (BCC), the Federal Government, the Office of the Public Prosecutor, and the Federal Office of the Attorney General. Its objective was to disseminate evidence-based medicine, emphasizing knowledge of systematic reviews and the rational use of new healthcare technologies to provide better bases for healthcare decision making, establishing the necessary connection between legal and scientific knowledge. Results: The scientific program included sessions like ‘Evidence regarding what works and what doesn’t in paediatric care’, ‘Evidence on biological drugs for rheumatoid arthritis’, and ‘Evidence for the prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol dependence’. Sessions were also held regarding the importance of adding healthcare law to the curriculum for degrees in Medicine and Law as well as the creation of a healthcare court. Five-hundred-fifty people participated in the Congress, including healthcare and legal professionals, healthcare consumers, and representatives of government regulatory agencies, the Ministry of Health and the pharmaceutical industry. The sessions were also attended ‘virtually’ by 2000 students in the Evidence-Based Healthcare Course (a partnership among the BCC, the Ministry of Health and the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital), and there was a free, live web transmission of all sessions (available on the BCC site). Conclusion: In order to guarantee a public healthcare system based on universality and equality using our limited available healthcare resources, it is fundamental that we raise and discuss questions of healthcare law and evidence-based health care, focussing on legal actions that defend the right to health care. The 1st Brazilian Congress of Evidence-Based Medicine and the Right to Healthcare can be considered one of the first steps in the direction of this important interaction among healthcare and legal professionals in Brazil.