This article aims primarily at discussing the role of information in health management, its author commenting on the specific information assumes when related to the health sector. The administration of a health system should involve organizational aspects, as well as the ones emanating from the practice of health itself, or it will not attain the foremost objective of the specialized institutions in the area: to provide effective care in health matters. The question of appraisal is seen, in health, as a basic dimension of the managerial process, as the configuration of an approximate knowledge of reality, built upon several indicators the system provides - indices from the sanitary' policy, social and economic indicators, data expressing the attention payed to problems of health, and also the ones revealing the general state of health. The study proposes a new format for the basic system of information in health: an appraisal of health's organizational structure; appraisal of patterns and programs of action; appraisal of the results and impacts of health practices.Informação na gerência em saúde. Especificidade. Avaliação em saúde. Cinco modalidades de indicadores. Nova configuração para o sistema básico de informação em saúde.