Development and application of a dynamic transmission model of health systems' preparedness and response to COVID-19 in twenty-six Latin American and Caribbean countries

The global impact of COVID-19 has challenged health systems across the world. This situation highlighted the need to develop policies based on scientific evidence to prepare the health systems and mitigate the pandemic. In this scenario, governments were urged to predict the impact of the measures they were implementing, how they related to the population's behavior, and the capacity of health systems to respond to the pandemic. The overarching aim of this research was to develop a customizable and open-source tool to predict the impact of the expansion of COVID-19 on the level of preparedness of the health systems of different Latin American and the Caribbean countries, with two main objectives. Firstly, to estimate the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and the preparedness and response capacity of health systems in those countries, based on different scenarios and public policies implemented to control, mitigate, or suppress the spread of the epidemic. Secondly, to facilitate policy makers' decisions by allowing the model to adjust its parameters according to the specific pandemic trajectory and policy context. How many infections and deaths are estimated per day?; When are the peaks of cases and deaths expected, according to the different scenarios?; Which occupancy rate will ICU services have along the epidemiological curve?; When is the optimal time increase restrictions in order to prevent saturation of ICU beds?, are some of the key questions that the model can respond, and is publicly accessible through the following link: http://shinyapps.iecs.org.ar/modelo-covid19/. This open-access and open code tool is based on a SEIR model (Susceptible, Exposed, Infected and Recovered). Using a deterministic epidemiological model, it allows to frame potential scenarios for long periods, providing valuable information on the dynamics of transmission and how it could impact on health systems through multiple customized configurations adapted to specific characteristics of each country.

Argentinian Digital Health Strategy

Digital Health is one of the three pillars for the effective implementation of Universal Health Coverage in Argentina. The Ministry of Health published the National Digital Health Strategy 2018-2024 in order to establish the conceptual guidelines for the design and development of interoperable health information systems as a state policy. The World Health Organization "National eHealth Strategy Toolkit", "Global Strategy on Digital Health" and other international and local evidence and expert recommendations were taken into account. The path to better healthcare involves adopting systems at the point of care, allowing for the primary recording of information and enabling information exchange through real interoperability. In that way, people, technology and processes will synergize to enhance integrated health service networks. In this paper, we describe the plan and the first two years of implementation of the strategy.

Mi Argentina/Mi Salud: The Argentinian Citizen Digital Health Portal

The Ministry of Health (MoH) stated the National Digital Health Strategy 2018-2024 in order to establish the conceptual guidelines for the design and development of interoperable health information systems. It included the creation of a National Digital Health Network, and a Citizen Health Portal to inform and empower patients about their rights. For instance, the Digital Vaccination Card is already available and has equal legal validity as its paper version. The platform also works as a personal privacy manager, to configure the consent for Health Information Exchange through the network, or to check the access logs. This paper outlines the implementation experience of this powerful tool at a national level.

Results of the Use of the Teleconsultation Platform After 2 Months of Implementation

The Ministry of Health (MoH) set the National Digital Health Strategy 2018-2024 as a state policy. It included a National TeleHealth Plan to enhance access and quality of healthcare in a wide territory like Argentina, leveraging more than 20 years of national telemedicine experiences and coordinating it with the territorial integrated health service networks proposed by the Universal Health Coverage strategy. In collaboration with the Ministry of Modernisation, the MoH developed and implemented a new TeleHealth Web Platform to perform eReferrals and eConsultations nationwide. This poster describes the first 2 months of usage.