Ariel Delgado Ramos, MD, MS
1st Degree Specialist in Biostatistics and 2nd Degree Specialist in Medical Informatics. Dr Delgado is National Informatics Director and Assistant Professor of Medical Informatics at the National School of Public Health, Havana. He is a member of the Cuban Society of Public Health, the Cuban Society of Family Doctors, and the Cuban Society of Medical Informatics. He has served as Informatics Director for Matanzas Province, Director of the Provincial Department of Health Statistics (Matanzas), Advisor to the First Vice Minister of Public Health, and National Coordinator for Medical Informatics & Information and Knowledge Management.
José B. Jardines Méndez, MD, MEd
2nd Degree Specialist in Public Health. Dr Jardines is Full Professor of Public Health and Ethics at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana, and Assistant Professor and Member of the Scientific Council at the National School of Public Health, Havana. He is President of the Virtual Health University Governing Board and President of the Scientific Council of the National Medical Sciences Information Center. Prior to this, Dr Jardines served as National Director for Medical Education (1982-1988), Vice Minister for Medical Education (1988-1997), and Vice Minister for Health Research (1997-2000). Dr Jardines is also a Regional Advisor to the Pan American Health Organization for Human Resources and a member of the International Association for Bioethics.
Araceli Lantigua Cruz, MD, PhD
2nd Degree Specialist in Clinical Genetics. Dr Lantigua is Vice Director for Teaching at the National Medical Genetics Center and Full Professor at the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana, where she designed the master’s degree program for Clinical Genetics. Additionally, Dr Lantigua is President of the Academic Committee for the master’s programs in Medical Genetics and Genetic Counseling. She founded two national reference centers for Clinical Genetics and remains Clinical Genetics department head at Juan Manuel Márquez Pediatric Teaching Hospital, Havana. Dr Lantigua is a member of the Scientific Grading Commission for Biomedical Sciences and the Permanent Tribunal on Biomedical Sciences, where she was President from 2001 to 2005. She has spent over 25 years studying the epidemiology and etiology of mental retardation.
Nancy Sánchez Tarragó, MSc
Coordinator, Scientific Information and Informatics Department, National Health Trends Analysis Unit (UATS), Havana. A specialist in Technical-Scientific Information and Library Technologies, Sánchez is an Assistant Professor at the Communications School, University of Havana. She designed the Hygiene and Epidemiology intranets for the Ministry of Public Health and the UATS website and surveillance portal (http://www.sld.cu/sitios/vigilancia). Sánchez also designed, implemented, and currently maintains the Virtual Health Surveillance Library and the Health Surveillance Symposium (http:// cencomed.sld.cuvigilancia). Additionally, she analyzes and monitors trends for public health decisionmaking and is Editor for Technical Surveillance Report and International Epidemiological Situation. She is pursuing a doctorate in Information and Documentation.
Pedro Urra, MS
Director, National Medical Sciences Information Center and Founder and Director of INFOMED. Urra is a Full Adjunct Professor of Information Technologies at the University of Havana’s School of Library and Information Sciences. He has dedicated his professional career to information management, the development of the national virtual health infrastructure, and the training of human resources in health informatics. He helped develop the Latin American and Caribbean Virtual Health Library and the Virtual Health University. He is a vocal advocate for open source software. Additionally, Urra is a member of MEDICC Review’s Editorial Board.
Photos by Daniel Sánchez
