Nurys Bárbara Armas Rojas, MD

Specialist in hygiene and epidemiology. Since 1999, Dr Armas is on the medical staff at the Preventive Cardiology Department of the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery. She is assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana. Dr Armas’s research focuses on nosocomial infections, biosafety, morbidity and mortality related to smoking, epidemiology, risk factors, and quality of medical care for cardiovascular patients in Cuba. She co-authored the Cuban Program for Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.

Miguel Ángel Buergo Zuaznábar, MD

Specialist in internal medicine and neurology. Dr Buergo is associate researcher at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery’s Cerebrovascular Unit and associate professor of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana. In 1999, Dr Buergo was involved in developing Cuba’s National Program for Prevention of Cerebrovascular Diseases. He has published widely, authoring the first Cuban Guide to Clinical Practice for Stroke, and is a founding member of the Iberoamerican Society for Cerebrovascular Disease. Dr Buergo chairs the academic committee for Cuba’s master’s degree program in cerebrovascular disease.

Sergio González García, MS

Biochemist and MS in neuroscience and behavioral biology. González is assistant professor at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana, and adjunct researcher and member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. His research focuses on identifying biochemical markers of cerebrovascular disease and brain damage.

Raúl A. Herrera Valdés, MD, PhD, DrSc

Specialist in nephrology, and full professor at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana. Dr Herrera is the lead investigator for the Isle of Youth Study (ISYS) on chronic kidney disease and related chronic vascular diseases and risk factors. He directed the national Institute of Nephrology from 1988 through 2006. Dr Herrera is a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, and of the Scientific Research Committee of the International Society of Nephrology’s Commission for the Global Advancement of Nephrology (COMGAN). Since 1999, he has served on the editorial board of the Latin American Journal of Nephrology.

Susana Llanusa Ruiz, MPH

Electrical engineer, specialist in digital systems. Llanusa is associate researcher and associate professor at the National School of Public Health, Havana. She has received several national awards for her work in research and development of medical equipment. She is president of the Cuban Society of Bioengineering, and served as president of the Latin American Regional Council of Biomedical Engineering through 2007. Llanusa has carried out assessments of Cuban programs funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and of Cuba’s Virtual Health University.

Carmen Porrata Maury, MD, PhD

Specialist and senior researcher in physiology. Since 2002, Dr Porrata has directed the Finlay Institute’s research on nutrition, healthy diet and therapeutic effects of macrobiotic diets on chronic diseases. Dr Porrata has extensive experience in the fields of obesity, nutritional epidemiology, diet and chronic illness, and for six years was vice director of the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene. She is the principal author of Nutritional Recommendations and Guidelines for the Cuban Population and of the First National Survey of Consumption, Taste and Food Preferences. In 1995, she received the Pan American Health Organization’s Fred L. Soper Award for Excellence in Health Literature for her study of nutritional factors in the neuropathy epidemic on the Isle of Youth, Cuba.

Photos by Daniel Sánchez