Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH/PAHO)

Ethical priority-setting for a progressive realization of universal health coverage

When: Thursday 8^th May, 2014, 10:00 am to 11:30 am (Washington, D.C. Time).

Where: Room B, PAHO HQ Building, 525 23rd Street N.W., Washington DC, 20037, USA.

The session will be broadcasted through the following links:

Spanish: www.paho.org/virtual/HSS-CoberturaUniversalenSalud

English: www.paho.org/virtual/HSS-UniversalHealthCoverage

The Argentina VCPH Node informs that inscription is opened for the Course of Patient Rights Law. With this course, students will have the opportunity to learn about the law that determines which 26,529 are the essential rights of the patient and what the obligations of the professional health team and what to consider your company or health institution.
Entry deadline: April 30 | Quota: 25 students | Starts: May 5 | Offer: distance
More information and Registration

We warmly invite you to be part of an exciting event in global public health – the 14th World Congress on Public Health to be hosted in Kolkata, India from 11-15 February 2015. The Congress will aim towards fostering the promotion of “Healthy People – Healthy Environment” and will bring together thousands of participants from a wide range of public health disciplines from many countries around the world.

On March 25, 2014, Dr. Jose Jardines and Mr. Edgardo De Gracia from the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) team, made ​​the presentation of the pilot of the Educational Virtual Clinic (EVC) project in Evaluation Workshop of Palliative Care National Program of the Republic of Panama. In it, VCPH services were presented and especially the Educational Virtual Clinic as an opportunity to exchange experiences in Palliative Care.

The National Palliative Care Program aims to "provide health services of the highest quality, essential to achieve an optimal state of physically, mental, social and spiritual welfare of human beings, promoting quality of life and relief suffering of the patient and family in the final stage of an advanced terminal illness" (National Palliative Care Program, 2011). We hope the Educational Virtual Clinic serve as a tool to fulfill this purpose.

The Virtual Campus of Public Health modernizes the reports generation system, implementing JasperReports for generating relevant information required by the Academic Coordination and Virtual Courses.

JasperReports is a library of free reporting code written in Java, that generates documents in formats of word processors, spreadsheets and printing. It also provides a web interface to manage, store and generate reports that have been designed in iReport Designer. The latter is a graphical interface for the design, implementation and export reports to be stored anywhere interface JasperReports.

In the last four months the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) of the Pan American Health Organization has developed in conjunction with the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS) of the Republic of Panama a virtual training for managing Health Information System (HIS). This health information system generates a single electronic patient record, which can be consulted at national level health facilities in the CSS.

In the middle of February 2014 the migration process of Drupal Countries Nodes to a Multi-Sites installation was completed.

This migration took place in nodes countries Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and the American Center for Social Security Studies (CISS). Allowing integrate these nodes with the goal of the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) and educational services provided in Educational Virtual Clinic and Virtual Classrooms.

With this step the management and updating of all sites and creating accounts VCPH simplified. This is accomplished by sharing the same Drupal installation between all nodes including Drupal core, modules and themes. Despite this, content management and users are managed in a decentralized manner in each of the nodes. On the other hand, security, efficiency and upgrades done centrally to ensure technological unification of the different sites.

Live from Lima, Peru: International Conference “Towards universal health coverage” 20th and 21st of february.

We invite you to participate virtually: http://minsacu.tribalhost.net

With the intention of improving disease surveillance and control in the English-speaking Caribbean, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) launched a virtual course on Basic Epidemiological Concepts for front-line health workers.

The Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has opened the call for applications for the Edmundo Granda Ugalde Leaders in International Health Program (LIHP) 2014.

In recognition of the multiple and evolving challenges facing leaders today, the LIHP aims to strengthen the capacity of countries to more effectively analyze, define, advocate and project their national health interests within this complex global context.

The program is open to professionals in the Americas working in public health, international relations or related fields.

The deadline for the receipt of applications is 7 March 2014. For more information, visit:

The virtual course on Basic Epidemiological Concepts is the result of a long-standing collaboration between the Pan American Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada to provide training in epidemiology for front-line health workers. This course has been newly adapted to the Caribbean context and is being launched through PAHO's Virtual Campus for Public Health.

The Countries Virtual Classroom of Virtual Campus of Public Health receives 2014 with the new version 2.5 of Moodle with all the latest news and benefits offered by this version, especially the compatibility with different mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet.

We have published in the Portal of the Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH) a concept map about “What is the Campus?” The 3 main areas of the VCPH are represented: 1) Virtual Classroom, 2) Virtual Library, 3) Virtual Clinic. The VCPH Network is included as the 4th basic component, and relations between the concepts are established. In the concept map you will also find useful links under the concepts to continue exploring.

The latest versions of tutored courses that have recently finished are now available as open resources. Free access is available to all learning resources included in the modules.

In Quito, the December 11, 2013 the closing ceremony of the Virtual Course Capacity Development for the renewal of primary health care and implementation of Model of Integrated Health Care, Family and Community was performed. In this course over a hundred professional first level of health care from the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador were formed and the pair were trained in virtual tutoring 15 university teachers.

This online course was developed under the auspices of PAHO Canada-CIDA Project and can be regarded as a pioneer in Ecuador but has been preceded by five versions of the course which countries offer the PAHO Regional level. This course is associated conceptually different chapters of the Model of Integrated Health Care, Family and Community. This Ecuadorian course consists of 6 modules, in addition to baseline. Each module contains core and supplemental readings in which those specifically related to PHC and the MIAS-conjugated CRF. Otherwise follow the validated scheme online courses that are offered through the Virtual Campus of Public Health.

Towards greater HR policies according to the Quality of Life and Health with Equity and National Policy.

Telemedicina 2
The pilot will take place in Fuerte Olimpo, on December 17th of this month, so from Saturday December 7, a technical team composed of the Regional Director, Dr Luis Martinez, Coordinator Health Regions, Dr . Jacinto Noguera, Dr. Cesar Cabral of DGRRII, Mr. Juan Carlos Coronel, also of DGRRII and Mr. Virgil Cane, are located in the Regional Hospital of the place, working on the installation of the necessary equipment for implementation of this important project and making the corresponding tests with DNERHS.

By Coordination Node DNERHS Paraguay from the Virtual Campus of Public Health, PAHO / WHO (VCPH PAHO / WHO), which has other technological tools, it has all the elements for the installation of techniques in each of the health regions stations so start the Telemedicine Project in throughout Paraguay.

On November 18, 2013, at the headquarters of the Universidad Especializada de Las Américas (UDELAS) in Santiago de Veraguas, Republic of Panama, the Virtual Campus of Public Health of PAHO / WHO participated in the workshop training "Use and Application of Moodle 2x Platform for Teaching and Research."

Activity in the context of the development of the UDELAS-Health-Network, Faculty of Health and Integral Rehabilitation, Universidad Especializada de Las Américas Project.

In the same part more than 45 teachers from university extensions of the Provinces of Chiriquí, Veraguas, Cocle and Los Santos.

The technical cooperation provided by the team VCPH consisted of riding the technological infrastructure of the Virtual Classroom Academic and Research Network, in addition to training staff in the use of various educational activities and resources available on the platform Moodle 2x.

From 13 to 15 November 2013 was held successfully MoodleHealth 2013 Third International Congress in Recife, Brazil, coordinated by the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH), Node VCPH Brazil UNASUS Foundation FIOCRUZ / MS. The central speakers, panels and discussion forums cases exposed to content producers, teachers, researchers and users of knowledge and pedagogical issues, technological and academic management for networked education practices.

Among the latest improvements the team of Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) is conducting a new format we present Regional Portal and Educational Virtual Clinic (EVC) for smartphones (iPhone, Android and other phones).

With this new format we hope that those who access from the mobile device to enjoy a fully optimized site to your needs.

The pages are much more visual and clear. Courses can do searches more easily within the portal.

Reduces load times of all pages to be strictly necessary content and optimizing the size of pictures to smaller screens.

All this work is a result of an exponential increase of internet access from mobile devices and we're sure that within a few years many users will access through mobile phones rather than from the desktop computer.

The Virtual Campus of Public Health invites you to participate in the self-learning laboratory training in the epidemiology of influenza, was opened in October with the objective to train laboratory professionals who are involved in the surveillance process of influenza and other respiratory viruses, in the monitoring process, particularly in data analysis and dissemination of results. The clinical- epidemiological and laboratory surveillance of acute respiratory infections caused by influenza and other respiratory viruses should be integrated.

On october beginning the Course Intensified national SARI surveillance training with the objetive To train national professionals involved in the process of integrated SARI surveillance, particularly influenza , according to WHO/PAHO updated guidelines.

Among the lessons learned from the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic were the lack of systems for monitoring the evolution of influenza and clinical–epidemiological characteristics, especially among severe cases, and the lack of standardized systems for comparing data between countries. Thus, systems to monitor SARI have been prioritized, and should also seek to integrate clinical-epidemiological and laboratory surveillance of influenza and other respiratory viruses.

We invite health professionals to join a collaborative learning experience in the proper use of Information and Communication Technology. Educational Virtual Clinic is an e-learning plan coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization, through the Virtual Campus of Public Health and the Ministry of Health, in pilot phase. All health professionals can participate in the Educational Virtual Clinic. You just have to click on the following link and fill out the registration form: http://clinica.campusvirtualsp.org/user/register

Held from 25 to 27 September in Mexico City National Professional Meeting to effective quality Health Services, convened by the Ministry of Health with the aim of providing health services based on increasingly higher standards and strengthen interpersonal quality of care of health professionals.

During the same Dr. Jose B. Jardines, Regional Coordinator VCPH a presentation on the Virtual Campus and its impact on the quality of health services.

See more information at:

Held last September 24 at the headquarters of your PAHO, the Third Regular Meeting of the Steering Committee of Mexico Node Virtual Campus of Public Health, which was present Dr. J. Ignacio Santos CEO of Quality and Health Education, Dr. Maureen Birmingham Representative of PAHO, Dr. Jose B. Jardines Regional Coordinator Virtual Campus, with members of the Committee.

During the 3rd and 4th of September was held in Ayacucho, Peru, a training course for health professionals PHC approach in the National University San Cristobal de Huamanga in Ayacucho, headed by its dean, Dr. Jimmy Ango, the rector and vice-rector of the university and cooperating entities: UNPHA, CARE and PAHO / WHO.

MoodleHealth 2013 extends the deadline until October 6 to the call and present jobs.

http://moodlesaude2013.fiocruz.br

Jobs should follow the following topics:

The 2nd version - 2013 of the virtual Course Metodología de Gestión Productiva de los Servicios de Salud (Productive Management Methodology for Health Services) began recently with a group of 50 participants form Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela.

This virtual learning course provides participants a space of knowledge, reflection and development of operational capabilities to promote the development of PMMHS and its tools in each of the countries of the region.

The Virtual Course CARMEN School: How to Effectively Address Non Communicable Diseases in 21st Century (2013 version) started September 23^rd and is expected to end December 6^th. In this course, participants will develop a thorough understanding of a comprehensive approach to addressing the health problem of Chronic Non Communicable Diseases.

The course contains 5 modules:

On September 20, 2013 the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) launches the first edition of its Virtual Course on Gender and Health for the English-speaking Caribbean. The purpose of the course, which was developed in response to PAHO/WHO’s Gender and Health Policy, is to strengthen participants’ abilities to integrate the gender perspective within a diversity and Human Rights framework in their daily tasks.

“With this course, we hope to improve our partners´ access to information, tools, and evidence,” said Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of PAHO/WHO. “We also want to help users share experiences and build networks to continue the dialogue on how to include gender in health.”