Regional News

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.