[Coordination of public health education with service units: the Cuban experience]

The authors report on education for public health personnel in Cuba: it is a broadly diversified training, given in different teaching centers in the country. The system established ensures that public health training is coordinated with the work of the health services. There are mandatory rules and methods that must be followed by all the decentralized centers and courses. The Health Development Institute is one of the health system units that trains public health personnel at the post-graduate level. Courses are given in health administration and biostatistics leading to specialized M.A. and B.A. degrees. Each stage of the courses ends with a "practical service", done in units of the health system whose staff participate as teachers. The practical work is preceded by preparation of a work proposal, which turns the practice into what is in fact applied scientific research designed to solve a specific problem of the services. This makes for close coordination between the services, teaching and research, which is of great benefit for development of the health system.