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The lecture series will address various aspects of health care in Panama and Latin America.

By Jean Spinelli, Arizona Health Sciences Center
January 25, 2008

The Arizona Telemedicine Program at The University of Arizona College of Medicine is hosting its first international lecture series on health care in the Republic of Panama and Latin America. The series – which is using real-time videoconferencing technology to link the program's T-Health Institute in Panama City, Panama, and the UA College of Medicine in Tucson – began Tuesday.

The series of 12 lectures, which will be held through June 17, will be moderated by Ronald S. Weinstein, the program's director and executive director of the Institute for Advanced Telemedicine and Telehealth, and Ana Maria Lopez, the program's medical director. All lectures will take place from 1-2 p.m. in the Arizona Cancer Center, Room 2920.

The lecture series will cover a wide range of topics related to health care in the Republic of Panama, including:

• The social and governmental infrastructure for health care.
• The practices of nursing, radiology, pathology and private medicine.
• The epidemiology and treatment of tropical diseases, such as dengue fever and malaria.
• The challenges of dealing with tuberculosis and cancer.

The first lecture, held Jan. 22, gave an overview of health education in Panama. The topics for future lectures are:

• Jan. 29: Medical Research, Residency Programs and Continuing Medical Education Programs in Panama
• Feb. 19: Tropical Diseases, Dengue Fever and Tuberculosis in Latin America and Panama
• March 4: The Nursing Profession in Panama and Latin America
• March 11: Cancer in Panama
• March 18: The Practice of Pathology in Panama: Access to Laboratory Services
• April 15: Infectious Disease as a Medical Specialty in Panama
• April 29: The Practice of Radiology in Panama and Latin America
• May 13: Health Care Infrastructure in Panama: Ministry of Health, Social Security
• May 20: Health Care Infrastructure in Panama: Private Practice of Medicine
• June 10: Health Care Overview: The Integration of Health Care Services in Panama
• June 17: Overview of Panamanian Health Care Human Resources

Since 2000, the Arizona Telemedicine Program has served as a technical adviser for the establishment of telemedicine programs in the Republic of Panama. The principal collaborators in Panama, who have clinical lecturer appointments in the UA College of Medicine's department of pathology, are housed in the program's T-Health Institute in Panama City.

The Panamanian collaborators are involved in education and telemedicine service programs and are working with the Arizona Telemedicine Program and the UA to develop electronic telehealth courses on telemedicine and telehealth in English and Spanish. The courses will be available this summer on DVD.