MASSACHUSETTS, United States (CMC) – A major Harvard Medical School-affiliated research institute is aiming to develop education and care delivery in the Caribbean.

The Division of Clinical Informatics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has signed a framework agreement with the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to collaborate in supporting the advancement of eHealth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

BIDMC said its efforts will be led by Director of Global Health Informatics Dr Yuri Quintana.

BIDMC noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined eHealth as “the cost-effective and secure use of information and communication technologies in support of health, including treating patients, conducting research, educating the health workforce, tracking diseases and monitoring public health.”

“This collaboration will allow us to tap into the vast expertise of BIDMC’s informatics division and clinicians, as well as the entire Harvard community,” Quintana said.

“As a systems design engineer, I’ll be looking at the institutions, care providers and patients and the information that flows among them with the goal of determining how technology can facilitate communication, education and care coordination,” he added.

Quintana said he will work with his technical counterpart, David Novillo, PAHO eHealth Program Coordinator, on eHealth training strategies and the development of research priorities and publications for use in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We’ll be studying how different implementations in different countries are adapted to fit local needs,” Quintana said. “We’ll then examine how effectively communicating best practices can help improve outcomes while reducing costs.”

Quintana said he and Novillo will begin by looking at newborn and maternal health.

“One of the United Nations millennial goals is to reduce infant mortality,” Quintana noted. “Progress has been made; but, in some countries, there are still infant mortality rates as high as 30 to 40 percent in areas where there are fewer services.

“This problem lends itself to telemedicine and eHealth because technology can connect experts where they’re needed and when they’re needed,” added Quintana, stating that he will also collaborate with BIDMC clinicians Dr Charles Safran, Chief of the Division of Clinical Informatics, Dr James Gray, Neonatologist, and Dr Hope Ricciotti, MD, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

BIDMC says Safran and Gray developed one of the world’s first telemedicine applications for neonatal care, called “Baby CareLink,” in 1996.

“For more than 45 years, the goals of BIDMC’s Informatics Division have been to improve the quality and reduce the cost of medical care, to enhance the quality of medical education, to improve the relationship between doctor and patient, and to explore innovative approaches to research through computing,” said Safran, adding that the team looks forward to sharing its expertise with their colleagues from the region and to explore long term collaborations.

Ultimately, BIDMC said this partnership will provide increased technical support to the Governments of the region in the area of eHealth and within the framework of implementation of the PAHO eHealth Strategy and Plan of Action (2012-2017) and of the PAHO 2014-2019 Strategic Plan.

BIDMC, a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, said it “consistently ranks as a national leader among independent hospitals in National Institutes of Health funding.”