Cuba's Medical System: A Public Health Paradox?
Steven Bedrick
National Library of Medicine Fellow
PhD Candidate, OHSU, DMICE
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Presented at OHSU Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology
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Cuba presents a public health paradox. Its public health indicators are consistently similar or superior to those of wealthy, industrialized nations such as the United States and Japan. Cuba's per-capita GDP, however, has more in common with third-world countries such as Indonesia and Bolivia. How, then, has Cuba achieved health parity with its wealthier neighbors? Their solution has been built using low-cost, high-impact techniques in preventative medicine, primary care, and community education. More recently, the country's health ministries have been utilizing information technologies to aid in clinical communication, continuing education, and telemedicine.