Jacinto Duverger received his Bachelor’s Degree in Economic Cybernetics from the University of Donetsk, Ukraine in 1988 and his Master’s Degree in Information and Communications in 2007 from a joint program between the University of Las Villas and Guant�namo University. Since 1994 he has worked almost exclusively on the development of the Health Trends Analysis Units (Unidad de An�lisis de Tendencias en la Salud, UATS) throughout Cuba, participating in their conceptual design, installing their first computer network, and more. Born in the country’s easternmost province, Guant�namo, his fascination with programming and Prospective Methodology led him to create health software that helps provincial UATS track and forecast health events and to engage in proactive strategic health planning. Most recently, Duverger developed a software package to study the financial sustainability of Mexico’s new catastrophic illness coverage program. Duverger sat down with MEDICC Review to talk about software development, strategic health planning methodologies, and training the new generation of Cuban public health leaders.
Dr Pedro Ordúñez, a leading public health expert and internist, is Director of the Cienfuegos Provincial Teaching Hospital and Associate Professor at the National School of Public Health in Havana. Dr Ordúñez has published extensively in Cuban and international peer-reviewed journals, most recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology, as co-author of Impact of Energy Intake, Physical Activity, and Population-wide Weight Loss on Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Mortality in Cuba, 1980–2005.[1] In 1994, he was selected as a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) post-graduate fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Thereafter, he obtained a Doctorate in Health Sciences from Cuba’s National School of Public Health. Dr Ordúñez has traveled throughout the Americas as a chronic disease consultant for PAHO and has served locally in the PAHO-coordinated CARMEN Network, which focuses on the integrated prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases and their risk factors. He is a member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and has received the nationalhealth award on several occasions.
Dr Ordúñez sat down with MEDICC Review for an exclusive interview to discuss his insights into the complex relation between poverty, development, and chronic disease.
Dr Vicente Vérez Bencomo is a world-renowned scientist who led the team that discovered and developed the Cuban Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine using a synthetic antigen – the first of its kind in the world. Educated in Cuba, Russia, and France, Dr Vérez has received numerous awards for his groundbreaking work, including the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Gold Medal (2005), and the Cuban National Chemistry Award (2006). The Cuban Hib vaccine is undergoing evaluation by the World Health Organization for vaccination packages for use in the developing world.
Dr Vérez has published widely in international scientific journals of impact and is the Cuban representative to the International Carbohydrates Organization and Senior Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. He is currently Director of the Center for the Study of Synthetic Antigens, under the aegis of the University of Havana’s Chemistry Department.
He sat down with MEDICC Review to talk about the global burden of Haemophilus influenzae type b, what motivates him as a scientist, how synthetic antigens might be applied to other vaccines, and what he is currently working on.
Pharmacist, biochemist, and lead scientist of the Cuban team that developed the meningitis B vaccine, Concepción Campa has been internationally recognized for her scientific contributions to children’s health; this vaccine, patented as VA-MENGOC-BC®, was awarded the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Gold Medal in 1989.
Currently, Campa is President and General Director of the Finlay Institute, the Cuban scientific center dedicated to research, development, production, and marketing of vaccines for human use. Among many other distinctions, Concepción Campa is: Senior Member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences; World Health Organization Temporary Consultant & Scientific Advisor; Pan American Health Organization Temporary Advisor; Member of the Scientific Council of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health; and Member of the Cuban Expert Committee on Vaccines. She received an honorary PhD from the University of Havana in 1996.
Dr Campa sat down with MEDICC Review to discuss Cuba’s vaccine research approach, development of the meningitis B vaccine, what it’s like to lead an internationally-renowned scientific institution, and more.
