Regional News

Over three weeks, the PMIS central team in collaboration with the VCPH, together with colleagues from various departments and country offices, participated in the process of "Review of Solutions". During the working sessions of the first prototype of PMIS, which has the initial configuration of modules HR Payroll evaluated.

The Review Solutions was a very interactive exercise in which Collaborative Solutions, responsible for integrating all systems PMIS, presented his interpretation of the administrative processes of the PAHO and how these fit into Workday (central system PMIS) "said Gonzalo Contreras, Manager PAHO Argentina.

The Regional Core Competency Framework for Public Health (RCCFPH) is the result of a collective effort, led by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and deriving from a process that involved over 240 collaborators from 28 countries in the Americas Region. The Framework hopes to strategically support the countries of the Americas in strengthening the capacity of their health systems in the area of public health. The purpose of the Framework is to promote the development of master training plans for health human resources, as a strategy for the optimal performance of the Essential Public Health Functions. 

On 25 and 26 June 2014 was held at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington, DC workshop update "New tools of the Virtual Campus of Public Health", involving general coordinators and academics various regional courses. The workshop as educational aspects VCPH pattern, environment and toolchain VCPH Virtual Classroom in Moodle 2.5 platform were reviewed. Various practical activities in which each participant created a single project and browsing, editing, resources and learning activities, assessment and monitoring through the Virtual Classroom explored were also developed. It was attended by Dr. Francisco Becerra, Assistant Director of the Organization, who stressed the importance of the Virtual Campus of Public Health reiterating its support; and Dr.

Inaugural Meeting Agenda

The Virtual Campus for Public Health of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) releases the Spanish Virtual Course "Prevention Measures and Cholera Treatment" (Curso Virtual “Medidas de Contención y Manejo Correcto del Cólera”).  This course has been prepared by the Secretariat of Health of Mexico and kindly shared for publication through the Virtual Classroom.

It is important to note that "in the world today 3 to 5 million cases of cholera occur annually and is responsible for 100,000 to 120,000 deaths. Overall, diarrheal diseases remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially among populations with the lowest human development ... "

The AUDIT-SBI Virtual Course (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - Screening and Brief Intervention) is now available as a Self-Learning course in the Virtual Classroom. 

This course consists of 5 Modules and you are free to self-enroll and access all the resources:

On 10 June, the Director met with Hubert Humphrey Fellows to bid them farewell at the conclusion of their two-month ‘professional affiliation’ experience at PAHO, a key component of their 10-month leadership training in the United States.

This year’s group came from nine countries in the five WHO regions: Albania, Egypt, Haiti, India, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, the Philippines and Thailand.

They worked in several technical areas on projects related to HIV/AIDS, health communications, health systems financing, medical education, substance abuse, nutrition and non-communicable diseases. 

On May 7, 2014, in La Paz, Bolivia, with the presence of Dr. Michel Thieren, Representative of PAHO / WHO and the organizers Bolivia Hannover and Dr. Susana Escalante Giovanni, a meeting with officials and technicians was conducted 10 Bolivian educational institutions and health, where node creation of the Virtual Campus for Public Health of Bolivia was analyzed. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Jose Jardines and Mr. Edgardo De Gracia VCPH, who presented the project of the Virtual Campus for Public Health and Educational Virtual Clinic.

In this activity the 20 participants confirmed their commitment to the development of Bolivia node considering:

Ethical priority-setting for a progressive realization of universal health coverage

When: Thursday 8^th May, 2014, 10:00 am to 11:30 am (Washington, D.C. Time).

Where: Room B, PAHO HQ Building, 525 23rd Street N.W., Washington DC, 20037, USA.

The session will be broadcasted through the following links:

Spanish: www.paho.org/virtual/HSS-CoberturaUniversalenSalud

English: www.paho.org/virtual/HSS-UniversalHealthCoverage

The Argentina VCPH Node informs that inscription is opened for the Course of Patient Rights Law. With this course, students will have the opportunity to learn about the law that determines which 26,529 are the essential rights of the patient and what the obligations of the professional health team and what to consider your company or health institution.
Entry deadline: April 30 | Quota: 25 students | Starts: May 5 | Offer: distance
More information and Registration

We warmly invite you to be part of an exciting event in global public health – the 14th World Congress on Public Health to be hosted in Kolkata, India from 11-15 February 2015. The Congress will aim towards fostering the promotion of “Healthy People – Healthy Environment” and will bring together thousands of participants from a wide range of public health disciplines from many countries around the world.

On March 25, 2014, Dr. Jose Jardines and Mr. Edgardo De Gracia from the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) team, made ​​the presentation of the pilot of the Educational Virtual Clinic (EVC) project in Evaluation Workshop of Palliative Care National Program of the Republic of Panama. In it, VCPH services were presented and especially the Educational Virtual Clinic as an opportunity to exchange experiences in Palliative Care.

The National Palliative Care Program aims to "provide health services of the highest quality, essential to achieve an optimal state of physically, mental, social and spiritual welfare of human beings, promoting quality of life and relief suffering of the patient and family in the final stage of an advanced terminal illness" (National Palliative Care Program, 2011). We hope the Educational Virtual Clinic serve as a tool to fulfill this purpose.

The Virtual Campus of Public Health modernizes the reports generation system, implementing JasperReports for generating relevant information required by the Academic Coordination and Virtual Courses.

JasperReports is a library of free reporting code written in Java, that generates documents in formats of word processors, spreadsheets and printing. It also provides a web interface to manage, store and generate reports that have been designed in iReport Designer. The latter is a graphical interface for the design, implementation and export reports to be stored anywhere interface JasperReports.

In the last four months the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) of the Pan American Health Organization has developed in conjunction with the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS) of the Republic of Panama a virtual training for managing Health Information System (HIS). This health information system generates a single electronic patient record, which can be consulted at national level health facilities in the CSS.

In the middle of February 2014 the migration process of Drupal Countries Nodes to a Multi-Sites installation was completed.

This migration took place in nodes countries Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and the American Center for Social Security Studies (CISS). Allowing integrate these nodes with the goal of the Virtual Campus of Public Health (VCPH) and educational services provided in Educational Virtual Clinic and Virtual Classrooms.

With this step the management and updating of all sites and creating accounts VCPH simplified. This is accomplished by sharing the same Drupal installation between all nodes including Drupal core, modules and themes. Despite this, content management and users are managed in a decentralized manner in each of the nodes. On the other hand, security, efficiency and upgrades done centrally to ensure technological unification of the different sites.

Live from Lima, Peru: International Conference “Towards universal health coverage” 20th and 21st of february.

We invite you to participate virtually: http://minsacu.tribalhost.net

With the intention of improving disease surveillance and control in the English-speaking Caribbean, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) launched a virtual course on Basic Epidemiological Concepts for front-line health workers.

The Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has opened the call for applications for the Edmundo Granda Ugalde Leaders in International Health Program (LIHP) 2014.

In recognition of the multiple and evolving challenges facing leaders today, the LIHP aims to strengthen the capacity of countries to more effectively analyze, define, advocate and project their national health interests within this complex global context.

The program is open to professionals in the Americas working in public health, international relations or related fields.

The deadline for the receipt of applications is 7 March 2014. For more information, visit:

The virtual course on Basic Epidemiological Concepts is the result of a long-standing collaboration between the Pan American Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada to provide training in epidemiology for front-line health workers. This course has been newly adapted to the Caribbean context and is being launched through PAHO's Virtual Campus for Public Health.

The Countries Virtual Classroom of Virtual Campus of Public Health receives 2014 with the new version 2.5 of Moodle with all the latest news and benefits offered by this version, especially the compatibility with different mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet.

We have published in the Portal of the Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH) a concept map about “What is the Campus?” The 3 main areas of the VCPH are represented: 1) Virtual Classroom, 2) Virtual Library, 3) Virtual Clinic. The VCPH Network is included as the 4th basic component, and relations between the concepts are established. In the concept map you will also find useful links under the concepts to continue exploring.

The latest versions of tutored courses that have recently finished are now available as open resources. Free access is available to all learning resources included in the modules.

In Quito, the December 11, 2013 the closing ceremony of the Virtual Course Capacity Development for the renewal of primary health care and implementation of Model of Integrated Health Care, Family and Community was performed. In this course over a hundred professional first level of health care from the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador were formed and the pair were trained in virtual tutoring 15 university teachers.

This online course was developed under the auspices of PAHO Canada-CIDA Project and can be regarded as a pioneer in Ecuador but has been preceded by five versions of the course which countries offer the PAHO Regional level. This course is associated conceptually different chapters of the Model of Integrated Health Care, Family and Community. This Ecuadorian course consists of 6 modules, in addition to baseline. Each module contains core and supplemental readings in which those specifically related to PHC and the MIAS-conjugated CRF. Otherwise follow the validated scheme online courses that are offered through the Virtual Campus of Public Health.

Towards greater HR policies according to the Quality of Life and Health with Equity and National Policy.

Telemedicina 2
The pilot will take place in Fuerte Olimpo, on December 17th of this month, so from Saturday December 7, a technical team composed of the Regional Director, Dr Luis Martinez, Coordinator Health Regions, Dr . Jacinto Noguera, Dr. Cesar Cabral of DGRRII, Mr. Juan Carlos Coronel, also of DGRRII and Mr. Virgil Cane, are located in the Regional Hospital of the place, working on the installation of the necessary equipment for implementation of this important project and making the corresponding tests with DNERHS.

By Coordination Node DNERHS Paraguay from the Virtual Campus of Public Health, PAHO / WHO (VCPH PAHO / WHO), which has other technological tools, it has all the elements for the installation of techniques in each of the health regions stations so start the Telemedicine Project in throughout Paraguay.

On November 18, 2013, at the headquarters of the Universidad Especializada de Las Américas (UDELAS) in Santiago de Veraguas, Republic of Panama, the Virtual Campus of Public Health of PAHO / WHO participated in the workshop training "Use and Application of Moodle 2x Platform for Teaching and Research."

Activity in the context of the development of the UDELAS-Health-Network, Faculty of Health and Integral Rehabilitation, Universidad Especializada de Las Américas Project.

In the same part more than 45 teachers from university extensions of the Provinces of Chiriquí, Veraguas, Cocle and Los Santos.

The technical cooperation provided by the team VCPH consisted of riding the technological infrastructure of the Virtual Classroom Academic and Research Network, in addition to training staff in the use of various educational activities and resources available on the platform Moodle 2x.