Learning together: a Canada-Cuba research collaboration to improve the sustainable management of environmental health risks.
OBJECTIVE
To build a national Cuban capacity for training environmental health professionals directly linked to the needs of policy-makers and communities.


METHODS
The University of Manitoba and University of British Columbia collaborated with an established training centre in Cuba (the Instituto Nacional de Higiene y Epidemiologia--INHEM) and new centres in the Central (Santa Clara) and Eastern (Santiago) regions of the country.


METHODS
Cuba.


METHODS
In the mid-1990s, a comprehensive curriculum (masters and diploma programs) was collaboratively developed, applying interactive teaching methods, and was delivered through a series of workshops and other interactions in Cuba, and short-term visits to Canada by Cuban PhD students.


RESULTS
The collaboration was successful in fulfilling capacity-building targets (over 50 Masters graduates, 467 Diploma graduates, over 30 trained core faculty in all regional centres as well as new curriculum and new accredited regional programs). Alongside this, a number of collaborative community-based research projects were undertaken in all three regions (drinking water in Santiago; housing and urban renewal, and dengue control in Havana; and tourism-related effects, and effective intersectoral management of population health determinants in Santa Clara).


CONCLUSIONS
The collaboration led to adopting new strategies for challenges such as a dengue epidemic in 2002, and new research on the effectiveness of intersectoral management of risks of particular interest to both Cuban and Canadian policy-makers. It triggered an ambitious collaboration between the Canadian-Cuban team and colleagues in Ecuador in order to build a similar national network there, built on South-South and North-South links.
Spiegel
Jerry
J
Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. jerry.spiegel@ubc.ca
Garcia
Maricel
M
Bonet
Mariano
M
Yassi
Annalee
A
D002170:Canada; D003142:Communication; D018672:Community Health Planning; D003462:Cuba; D003479:Curriculum; D004782:Environmental Health / Q000193:education*; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007393:International Educational Exchange; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D012106:Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012308:Risk Management; D013997:Time Factors