Research and cooperation go hand in hand in the Americas

Washington, DC, August 22, 2002 (PAHO) -- In a region with as many public health challenges as the Americas, research is essential. But often, scientific research can be a heavy burden for individual countries, and transmission of results tends to be hindered by lack of information technologies or by inadequate planning. In this field, cooperation and Panamericanism play an essential role, as has been shown by a program for research coordination run by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The Research Coordination Program seeks to integrate investigative projects carried out in the countries of the region to help each researcher know what others are doing and to share efforts and results, to use limited resources more efficiently and to orient results toward more equitable health.

In June of 2001, the program organized a Workshop on the utilization of scientific information, at the National Institute of Health Public in Cuernavaca, Mexico, to formulate recommendations for PAHO's Virtual Health Library, to create a technical advisory group on health equity, and to promote intersectoral alliances for policies on health equity.

"There are difficulties in using scientific evidence as guidelines for the preparation of policies, and this is disconcerting both for researchers and decision-makers," according to a PAHO document, which notes that a basic problem is the lack of appropriate means for dissemination of research findings. To this end, the program is working on projects such as the virtual library and others that make maximum use of new information and communication technologies, including the Internet.

The program also supports National Research Councils and research units of the ministries of health to improve their mastery of tools for science management, to strengthen scientific and technical information systems. It seeks to improve the processes of technical and ethical review of research projects and to improve each country's capacity to obtain financial resources to support research projects. It publishes technical documents in public health research.

The Research Grants Program is a special fund to facilitate the process of generating knowledge in public health and to strengthen the research capacity of Latin American and Caribbean countries. It aims to collaborate in research training and updating the knowledge and skills of researchers and scientists in public-health fields, and to facilitate dissemination and utilization of research findings in the formulation of policies and in the decision-making process regarding health issues.

PAHO also coordinates multicenter studies, which are comparative studies at the regional level that deal with relevant problems in public health in Latin America and the Caribbean. They involve a collaborative effort among several academic and research centers under the auspices and technical cooperation of PAHO. In these studies, the problem and central research question is answered with a uniform methodology that is simultaneously applied in different countries of the Region. The final objective of multicenter studies is the generation of knowledge to base policies and interventions in different public health fields.

There is also a regional level initiative to seek research proposals on relevant public health fields in Latin America and the Caribbean. The competition pursues to promote innovation and creativity among researchers in approaching new themes requiring a systematic research effort. The competition is issued annually, and researchers must apply in accordance with the individual terms of reference and requirements of each competition.

Through associations with prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and the National Institutes of Health of the United States, the program also offers grants for graduate thesis and research, fellowships, opportunities for internships and training in public health for the professionals of the branch in the Americas.

PAHO, which also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, was established in 1902 and is the oldest health organization in the world. It works with all the countries of the Americas in order to improve the health and raise living standards.