Application of eHealth in the Cuban contextAplicação da eSaúde no contexto cubano

The achievements and challenges arising from the application of eHealth in the Cuban context to support universal health are presented. The Ministry of Public Health defined the Computerization Strategy, whose lines of work are based on the components declared in the Strategy and Plan of Action on eHealth of the Pan American Health Organization, and in the Policy for the Computerization of the Society, approved by the Cuban Government. The paper describes the actions of the Cuban strategy elaborated to solve the limitations in the technological infrastructure, to develop the platforms, the tools and the applications required by the health services, and to stimulate the professionals' abilities to use them. The results of eHealth in Cuba are based on the application and evaluation of the strategy implemented in the framework of the improvement of the health sector through projects such as the electronic medical record called Galen Clínicas, the training of human resources and the resources for information and education from the Infomed Health Telematics Network. These models of solidarity and collaborative networking have contributed to universal health and positively impacted on the health system beyond the borders. The challenges of eHealth are the development of initiatives in mobile health -in which there is little experience-; telemedicine -a project that is stopped-; integration and interoperability among applications; the sustainability of the implemented solutions; insufficient technological infrastructure; and strengthening of the legal framework.