Rio de Janeiro, 26 January 2026 — As part of the plenary session “Digital transformation and PHC: opportunities and the way forward,” held within the framework of the Second Regional Forum of the Alliance for Primary Health Care in the Americas, Gabriel Listovsky, Head of the Special Program Virtual Campus for Public Health of the Pan American Health Organization, shared reflections on the challenges and opportunities of virtual education in advancing digital transformation.
During his intervention, Listovsky highlighted the strong concern among decision-makers, managers, and users of the Virtual Campus regarding ethical issues related to the use of digital health tools. He also underscored the high level of interest among health workers—from those working in hospital settings to those serving in rural areas—in learning about devices, tools, and effective approaches to implementing telehealth.
In this context, he emphasized that the focus should not be on the technology itself, but rather on how these solutions contribute to improving care, strengthening connections with patients, and responding to the needs of communities. These perspectives, he noted, are addressed transversally across the Virtual Campus’ courses on digital health, primary health care, and mental health.
Looking ahead, the discussion highlighted the importance of advancing interoperability between the Virtual Campus and other platforms to expand access to training for all health workers across the Region, as well as ensuring that training responds to the needs of health system transformation and is formally recognized within health workforce education and training processes.
The plenary session was moderated by Marcelo D’Agostino, Unit Chief for Information Systems and Digital Health at PAHO, and Myrna Martí, Advisor on Information Systems and Vital Statistics at PAHO. The session also featured contributions from Sebastián Saisso, Director of the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health at PAHO; Javier Guzmán, Chief of the Health, Nutrition and Population Division at the Inter-American Development Bank; Ana Estela Haddad, Secretary of Information and Digital Health at Brazil’s Ministry of Health; Audrey Fischer, Director of Strategies, Accreditation, and Primary Health Care Components at Brazil’s Ministry of Health; Manuel Zambrano, Vice Minister of Health of Panama; and Yudelka Batista, Vice Minister of Health of the Dominican Republic.
