Cuba today called for the application of data science in public health and digital transformation of the sector in the region, based on experiences in the face of Covid-19.
Acting actively in the 59th Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Steering Board, Dr. Eliana Morales, Director of Science and Technology Innovation at the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), emphasized that the first strategy enhances leadership and management operations in that region.
Morales stated that immediate processing and the use of continuous and honest data allow timely decisions to be made, evidenced in more than a year of fighting the pandemic through the application of digital tools for pandemic management, the state’s wallet website reported.
In the case of the Caribbean island, he explained that we have a strategy for the advancement of information and knowledge systems in the field of health, based on the training of specialized human resources graduates from universities and technological professions.
Likewise, advances have been made in recent years in medical robotics, precision medicine, nanoscience and neuroscience programs, among others, which require processing and ingesting large amounts of data.
On the other hand, Karel Barthelemy, Director of Information and Communications Technology at Minsap, stated that the digital transformation of the health sector is a major challenge and requires a design tailored to the characteristics of each country.
Barthelemy noted computer solutions currently used in research, monitoring of laboratory results, and availability of hospital beds, as well as information management from clinical laboratories, remote case consultations, and population control with applied doses of vaccines.
Other tools applied are the use of big data tools and mathematical models to predict virus behavior in a population, which allows modification of the national response plan and patient care protocols.
In his opinion, to implement the roadmap for the digital transformation of the health sector in the Americas region, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation between countries and the Pan American Health Organization, a fact that would generate an exchange of knowledge on this topic and jointly advance in the formation of a common platform.
The 59th PAHO Steering Board, which meets roughly Monday through Friday, brings together ministers of health and other authorities from countries and territories of the region, with the aim of analyzing the response to the pandemic and the major challenges that the Americas continue to face in this regard.
(taken from PL)
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