Teaching Global Health at the Frontlines: A multidisciplinary course in Peru presents basic concepts to students

The authors discuss a unique project to teach medical students in Peru about global health, which included a trip to the mining town of La Oroya at 15,610 feet above sea level in the Peruvian Andes

Biomedical Journals and Global Poverty: Is HINARI a Step Backwards?

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Barreras y desafíos para el desarrollo de la telesalud en el Perú en el contexto de la COVID-19

The purpose of the article is to describe the main barriers and challenges for the development of telehealth in Peru. This article discusses the role of the digital ecosystem in Latin America, the digital transformation of the health sector and the access to telehealth services in Peru. The barriers and challenges are grouped into components such as: infrastructure, infostructure, regulatory framework, trained health personnel, data management and information security, and the administrative processes for telehealth in Peru. Telemedicine represents an efficient strategy to ensure the continuity of health services to the population in situations such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to promote telehealth in primary health-care centers, due to their important role in the patient flow management to be referred to a more complex center. In addition, to strengthening the training of human resources in telehealth and digital health is essential to promote the development of telehealth in Peru.El objetivo del artículo es describir las principales barreras y desafíos para el desarrollo de la telesalud en el Perú. Se discute el rol del ecosistema digital en América Latina, la transformación digital en el sector salud, el acceso a la telesalud en el Perú. Las barreras y desafíos se agrupan en componentes tales como: infraestructura, infoestructura, marco normativo, personal de salud capacitado, tratamiento de datos y seguridad informática, y los procesos administrativos para la telesalud en el Perú. La telemedicina representa una estrategia eficiente para garantizar la continuidad de la prestación de servicios de salud a la población en situaciones como la actual pandemia por el COVID-19. Resulta importante impulsar la implementación de la telesalud en los establecimientos de salud que conforman el primer nivel de atención ya que juegan el rol importante en la gestión de pacientes para su referencia a establecimientos de mayor complejidad. Asimismo, fortalecer la formación de recursos humanos en telesalud y la salud digital resulta fundamental para impulsar el desarrollo de la telesalud en el Perú

Developing capacity in health informatics in a resource poor setting: lessons from Peru

The public sectors of developing countries require strengthened capacity in health informatics. In Peru, where formal university graduate degrees in biomedical and health informatics were lacking until recently, the AMAUTA Global Informatics Research and Training Program has provided research and training for health professionals in the region since 1999. The Fogarty International Center supports the program as a collaborative partnership between Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru and the University of Washington in the United States of America. The program aims to train core professionals in health informatics and to strengthen the health information resource capabilities and accessibility in Peru. The program has achieved considerable success in the development and institutionalization of informatics research and training programs in Peru. Projects supported by this program are leading to the development of sustainable training opportunities for informatics and eight of ten Peruvian fellows trained at the University of Washington are now developing informatics programs and an information infrastructure in Peru. In 2007, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia started offering the first graduate diploma program in biomedical informatics in Peru

Quality evaluation of health services using the Kano model in two hospitals in Peru

Public–private partnerships (PPP) represent an alternative model of health management focused on improving the quality of health services, particularly in emerging countries. To date, a systematic method to improve the perceived quality of health services by healthcare users in Peru has not been established. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of health services in two PPP hospitals in Peru using the Kano model. A prospective cross-sectional descriptive observational study was carried out through a health service satisfaction survey using the Kano model methodology, measuring six categories of attributes. A total of 250 users of the health services were surveyed in the two PPP hospitals, located in Lima and Callao, using non-probability convenience sampling. Of the 31 attributes evaluated by the patients, 27 (81%) were classified as having a one-dimensional-type attribute, 3 (10%) were reported as mandatory, and 1 (3%) was considered as inverse. These results suggest that the presence of most of the attributes evaluated was relevant to maintaining the level of user satisfaction and that the absence of these attributes generated dissatisfaction in the users. The results showed that the users’ evaluation of health services was multidimensional—namely, their evaluation was focused not only on the interaction space between the patient and medical personnel but also addressed other interaction services

Transformación digital del aprendizaje en la educación superior

En procesoDocumento de trabaj

Medical students' knowledge, abilities and access characteristics to the internet at a peruvian university

Objetivos: Estudiar los conocimientos, habilidades y características del acceso a internet en los estudiantes de medicina de pre-grado de una universidad peruana. Métodos: Desarrollo y aplicación de una encuesta a estudiantes de medicina de una universidad peruana, reporte de resultados y estudio caso control anidado de variables relacionadas con la habilidad en internet. Resultados: Los estudiantes accedieron a internet principalmente desde casa. Las páginas más visitadas fueron las de correo electrónico y sitios de entretenimiento. Hubo una sobrevaloración de la calidad de información médica disponible en la red y, sin embargo, un pobre conocimiento de las herramientas de salud en internet, además de un deficiente dominio de algunas herramientas básicas de navegación y mensajería. El ser hábil en internet se relacionó significativamente con una larga experiencia en la red, la presencia de acceso a internet en casa y el uso frecuente del correo electrónico y la WWW. Conclusión: La población estudiada no posee las habilidades y conocimientos necesarios para aprovechar adecuadamente internet en su formación académica.Objectives: To study the knowledge abilities and access characteristics to the Internet in undergraduate medical students from a Peruvian University. Methods: Development and application of a questionnaire to medical students, report of the results and nested case-control analysis of data to identify variables related to the ability to surf the Internet. Results: The students enter the Internet mainly from home. The most visited websites were those from web mail services and entertainment sites. The quality of the medical information available on the net was overrated, even though there was a poor knowledge of the online tools related to health, as well as a deficient ability with basic tools of navigation and e-mail. Being skillful on the Internet was significantly related to a long experience on the net, the presence of access to the Internet from home and the frequent use of e-mail and the WWW. Conclusions: The population studied does not have the ability and knowledge required to make the Internet a useful tool for its academic formation