Regional News

On March 23 last began the Program in International Health Leaders 2009, starting this year will bear the name of Dr. Edmundo Granda Ugalde, great academic leader in health and health equity in his native country of Ecuador and throughout the Region.

On March 4, 2009, took place at the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca, the first reunion of the Steering Committee of Node Mexico.

The objectives of this reunion were to organize work for the year 2009 and search criteria to enable greater functionality Node Mexico.

Minuta - Director Committee of the Node Mexico

In recent days the link was posted to the Portal Node Mexico.

This new image of Mexico portal is the result of hard work and dedication of Node mexico to provide their users with new tools that allow better interaction across the network while maintaining the active participation of all of them on campus.

On March 19, 2009 began the second version of the Course Tutor for Learning Network. This course has a duration of approximately 12 weeks and it is estimated that the participants have a commitment from an average of six hours a week in flexible schedules and distributed according to their means.

The course began with 61 students from 15 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. It also has the participation of 6 teachers from Argentina and Cuba.

More than 40 social security officials from 17 countries gathered at the Inter-American Center for Social Security Studies (CIESS) for the start of the specialization "Management in Health for Older People"

This activity was conducted and sponsored by the Latin American Association for the Elderly (ALMA), the Pan American Health and Education (PAHEF), the Pan American Health and CIESS.

From 3 to March 6 took place in Panama, the Workshop of the Virtual Campus of Public Health, which brought together experts from Moodle to the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) and the Philosophy Faculty of Buenos Aires, Argentina; PANAFTOSA of Brazil, University of Informatic Science of Cuba, of the Andalusian School of Public Health of Spain, National Institute of Public Health of Mexico and the National Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico and the University of Panama.

From the last 26 to 27 February took place in Jamaica, at the University of the West Indies (UWI), a meeting between the authorities of that institution with the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) to analyze the incorporation of Jamaica as node campus. The meeting was attended by Dr. Dennis Edelmide, Head of the Department of Social Medicine and Psychiatry, and Dr. Charles Godue, Project Coordinator Human Resources Development of the Pan American Health Organization, with their respective teams.

From 17 to February 19 was held in Costa Rica, the workshop for assessment of educational Virtual Leadership Course in Human Resources in Health.

The course allows more information and the basis for reflection, generating new knowledge and intervention mechanisms to facilitate the transformation of problems.

Through access to multiple "managers" and academic institutions in their own area of work.

The program is designed based on the generation of networks to exchange experiences and promote discussion on topics of human resources.

This strategy is one of the mainstays for the development of the Regional Human Resources Goals set by the 2007-2015 Area Health Systems and Services of PAHO.

From 11 to February 13, held in Costa Rica, the workshop reviews the educational proposal on Primary Health Care and its development on the platform of the Virtual Campus. The main objective of this course is to foster the development of the renewal of Primary Health Care in the Americas, through strengthening the capacities of leaders and managers of health and is part of the technical strategy of strengthening the Health Systems and Services of PAHO.

The workshop tutors and students attended the course and agreed on a set of guidelines to consider and to strengthen further to propose the addition of new items as part of the educational proposal.

In the context of the celebration of the VII International Congress of Informatics in Health was held in Havana on February 12 to 10, the development of the Workshop of the Virtual Campus of Public Health, to discuss the participation of the priority countries of the region in the Virtual Campus of Public Health.

Dr. Roberto Gonzalez, Deputy Minister of Education and Research of Cuba, during the official closing of the workshop, specifically citing the importance of the contribution of Cuban institutions towards all countries, to enable and facilitate the training of human resources health of the region.

The Secretary of Health of Mexico, Dr. Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos, the Representative in Mexico of the Pan American Health Organization, Dr. Philippe Lamy, and the Dr. Mario Henry Rodriguez Lopez, Director General of the National Institute of Public Health handed, on January 23, 2009 at the Auditorio Miguel E. Bustamante of the Mexican Ministry of Health, the diplomas to the students in the course Seguro Popular, training for operation and medical care 2008. This was also one of the main promoters of this initiative, Mr. Daniel Karam Toumeh, Commissioner of Social Protection in Health in SSA Mexico.

The National Coordinating Node Mexico Virtual Campus of Public Health, the Regional Node and the Office of the PAHO in Mexico convened the First National Workshop of the VCPH, 21 to 23 January 2009, and held at the premises of the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)in Mexico City.

The World Bank and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have committed to an unprecedented global effort to work towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The challenge is to strengthen the health sector through better policies and institutions, service delivery, strengthening the core functions of public health and sustainable financing.

To that end, has designed the course, Strengthening the Essential Public Health Functions.

The course, to be conducted in English, will be held between January and May 2009. It is structured around the 11 core functions identified by PAHO and will be grouped into an introductory module and 3 areas covering fundamentals and Organization, Strategy and Policy and Access and Quality.