MEDICC Facilitates Exchange of Ideas With Members of Cuba’s Health Care Community
 uba’s population is among the healthiest in the developing world. Disease prevention efforts, community involvement and an abundance of family doctors and neighborhood clinics sustain a health care system that is maintained with limited financial resources.
In 2003, Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC) developed the Faculty-Community Health Leadership Program. MEDICC proposed that Cuba’s health care methods could be a valuable resource for U.S. health care professionals working in communities that face public health challenges similar to those in Cuba. In March 2004, TCWF made a three-year, $150,000 grant to establish the program in South Los Angeles.
 “We wanted to provide these experiences for people who are in a position to effect change, like health professions faculty and community leaders, so they could immediately use the insights from Cuba to begin conceptualizing interventions and applications at home,” said Diane Appelbaum, MEDICC’s U.S. director.
For the California program, MEDICC identified the community of Watts/Willowbrook in South Los Angeles, an area that faces high rates of poverty, unemployment and chronic disease. MEDICC worked with the UCLA School of Public Health and Drew University to convene a group of health leaders working in that community and arranged for them to make three trips to Cuba over the course of the grant – visiting clinics and health care organizations and interacting with Cuban medical professionals.
“It is critically important that health professionals working in underserved communities have the opportunity for ongoing education,” said Sandra Martínez, TCWF program director. “The health care system in Cuba can provide a valuable learning opportunity for health professions in California.”
Before departing on their first trip to Cuba, each member of the group identified a specific health problem impacting their community and planned to observe how the Cuban health system addressed that issue among its patients. However, different insights emerged as the group witnessed the comprehensive community integration of the Cuban health system. In Cuba, family doctor-nurse teams work in small neighborhood offices, or consultorios, and are the “guardians of health” for approximately 150 families in their area. They provide clinical and preventive care, health education and promotion – both in the consultorio and during home visits.
The Los Angeles group recognized that the level of integration between the consultorios and their local communities around health promotion and health care delivery was one of the main indicators for its success. They concluded that the fragmentation and disorganization among the agencies providing health care in South Los Angeles is a serious health problem in its own right.
Since their first trip, MEDICC’s Los Angeles participants have begun to integrate their insights from Cuba into their work at clinics, health agencies, universities and hospitals. As the group looks ahead to one more trip, they continue to develop new programs, create dialogue and share their conviction that studying the successful community integration of the Cuban health care system is an important strategy in their effort to improve the quality of health care for underserved communities.
For more information, please visit www.medicc.org
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