BU Profs from Various Fields Discuss Cuba’s Healthcare System
On April 7, 2016, Boston University’s Latin American Studies Program held a panel discussion entitled “Cuba in the Global Health Landscape.”
The panelists included Edward Jones Lopez, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Frank Feeley, Associate Professor of Global Health, Mary Jane Doherty, a documentary filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film and Television, and Adela Pineda, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature and Director of the Latin American Studies Program.
The event was organized by Associate Professor of Global Health Veronika Wirtz, and featured an abridged screening of Salud!, a documentary on Cuba’s commitment to medical internationalism since the Revolution. Following the screening, there was a discussion of some of the most pressing issues in the field of healthcare, such as whether or not healthcare systems should be determined by a market-based economy or if healthcare should be considered a human right and be administered by the state. Using the unique situation in Cuba as a case study, the discussants highlighted the basic premises on which the Cuban healthcare system is based. Cornerstones of the socialist state’s approach to healthcare, an approach which has allowed the small island nation to have a major international impact in the field, include community-based preventative care, universal coverage regardless of economic situation and a commitment to building a medical profession in which many doctors come from underdeveloped communities.