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The purpose of this paper is to describe the opportunities and challenges of training processes in the coordination of regional and national communication initiatives for arboviral disease prevention, using the lessons learned in the Cuban context as an example. In February 2016 and December 2017, professional staff from the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine attended workshops for strengthening communication capacities for arboviral disease prevention in primary health care settings through gradual introduction of the most recent approaches promoted by the Pan American Health Organization in this regard. National, provincial, municipal, and health area specialists with diverse professional profiles were trained; multidisciplinary teams were strengthened at the different levels; specific tasks were assigned and coordinated at each level; and demonstration sites were established for the communication approaches promoted in the workshops. Learning needs in the field of mass communication were also identified, and activities for training technical staff and for monitoring and evaluation were introduced in the national strategy 2018-2021 to guarantee the implementation and sustainability of communication activities. Notwithstanding, participating institutions will have to address the challenges characteristic of communication for arboviral disease prevention, which include the rotation of trained personnel, the mobilization of resources for communication, and the identification of appropriate evaluation indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 defi- ned 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]