Cuba's National eHealth Strategy

Cuba has been building a national strategy using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for health since the establishment of the National Medical Sciences Information Center (CNICM) in 1965. Back then, vital statistics and health data - considered a cornerstone of the country's new universal health system - were transmitted by hand or over the phone. As technology grew more sophisticated over the next 30 years, microprocessors and computers were integrated into the process. In 1992, reeling from economic crisis, Cuba founded the national health telematics network known as INFOMED (www.sld.cu), betting on the strategy that ICTs could be used to improve population health at low cost. From these initial efforts until today, the country has followed a policy to build and strengthen a virtual health information infrastructure.[1].