Title
Developing capacity in health informatics in a resource poor setting: Lessons from Peru
Date Issued
27 October 2009
Access level
open access
Resource Type
commentary
Author(s)
Kimball A.
Arima Y.
Fuller S.
Holmes K.
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
Abstract
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. © 2009 Kimball et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Start page
80
Volume
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias de la computación
Sociología
Bioinformática
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-70749096220
Source
Human Resources for Health
ISSN of the container
14784491
Sponsor(s)
UPCH is recognized as the Peruvian university with the highest levels in research and training in medicine and public health. UPCH has been building capacity in research, training, infrastructure and human resources while developing key partnerships, with a long history of funding support from the FIC and other NIH-funded projects, as well as the Wellcome Trust, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Community, and other regional and national funds (e.g. the Peruvian Science and Technology Program). In recent years, UPCH has been making efforts to develop a structure for online education, targeting students and professionals with diffi- culties in accessing the classic educational system. Thus, the current goals of the AMAUTA program include training of core professionals in public health/medical informatics and strengthening the library and health information resource capabilities and accessibility at UPCH. The program aims to comprehensively strengthen the informatics training and capacity framework of individuals, systems, and the community.
Since 2000, the program has been successful in identifying internal and external resources and identifying ongoing funding from complementary sources (e.g., Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC]) for scholar support; UPCH was also the only successful foreign submission for a Fogarty 'Framework Programs for Global Health' research and training grant in 2005 [21]; and a returning scholar recently successfully competed for an R01 Global Research Initiative Program (GRIP) grant [18].
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus