Havana, Sep 22.- Directors of the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) of Cuba intervened, virtually, in the 59th Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) where they addressed the need to apply the science of data on public health and the digital transformation of the sector in the Americas, based on the experiences of the Island in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ileana Morales Suárez, director of Science and Technological Innovation at MINSAP, confirmed that the policy aimed at the application of data in the health sector strengthens both the leadership and the management of complex health processes.

He pointed out that the immediate processing and use of continuous and truthful data allows more timely decisions to be made and this has been demonstrated during these months of COVID-19, with the application of digital tools for epidemiological management.

He explained that Cuba has a strategy for the advancement of information and knowledge systems in health, which starts from the training of specialized human resources, with university and technological careers.

A statistical information system is structured that responds to health programs, whose use generates the best knowledge in decision-making, protected by a System of Science and Technological Innovation in the sector, he specified.

Likewise, in recent years progress has been made in medical robotics, precision medicine, nanoscience and neuroscience programs, among others, which require the processing and assimilation of large volumes of data.

Not however progress, we believe that we are doomed to a qualitatively higher stage in the use of this science data, as well as insertion of artificial intelligence and many other technologies, such levers of development of the Cuban health system, he said.

For his part, Karel Barthelemy Aguilar, Director of Information Technology and Communications at MINSAP, stated that the digital transformation of the health sector constitutes a great challenge and requires a design that is appropriate to the characteristics of each country.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of the importance of this digital transformation. In the specific case of Cuba, through the joint work of professionals in the sector with scientists from other specialties, programs were developed to improve the care of the population.

He mentioned that these computer solutions have been used in research, monitoring of laboratory results, the availability of hospital beds, the management of information from clinical laboratories, teleconsultation of cases and population control with applied doses of vaccines.

In addition to the use of Big Data tools and mathematical models to predict the behavior of the virus in the population, which allows adjusting the national coping plan and patient care protocols.

Barthelemy Aguilar said that in order 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 PAHO, which will allow generating an exchange of knowledge in the processes of digital transformation and jointly advance in the creation of a shared platform for all member states.

The 59th Directing Council of PAHO, which has been in virtual session since yesterday, brings together ministers of health and other authorities from the countries and territories of the region, with the purpose of analyzing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the main challenges that the Americas still face in this regard. (Text: ACN) (Photo: File)