The Permanent Secretariat of SELA is pleased to announce the “II Regional Seminar on e-Health and Telemedicine in Latin America and the Caribbean: Innovation practices and standards”, organized with the support of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC - @LIS2) and the Latin American Advanced Networks Cooperation (REDClara), the participation of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), and sponsorship of Venezuela’s TeleSalud and the Venezuelan Chamber of Information Technology and Electronics (CAVEDATOS).

This initiative is linked with the Project “Integration and Convergence for Health in Latin America and the Caribbean” (INCOSALC), which is promoted by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA with the support of the PAHO/WHO and ECLAC. INCOSALC’s objective is to consolidate a regional forum for exchanging strategies, making proposals, and implementing and evaluating projects with a regional scope in order to make strides towards convergence and integration in Latin America and the Caribbean in the area of health – with activities focusing on the promotion of the regional dialogue on e-Health and Telemedicine.

The most immediate precedent of this II Regional Seminar is the “I Regional Seminar on e-Health and Telemedicine: Connection and access for social well-being” (Caracas, 22 and 23 October 2009), organized by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA along with CAVEDATOS. Participants agreed that e-Health and Telemedicine are all-encompassing areas of action, both in terms their practical exercise – ranging from a simple telephone exchange to a complex remote surgical operation – and in terms of their impacts on the activities of the actors involved in health systems – which include distance education for professionals and practitioners in the health sector, massive sanitary campaigns aimed at the population, simplified information for the common citizen, specialized information aimed at professionals and practitioners, doctor-patient consultation and diagnosis systems, consultation and exchange of medical opinions among physicians, devices for remote surgical operations, as well as reading and storage devices for transferring medical information from medical diagnosis equipments.

Through dynamic panels and debates, the “II Regional Seminar on e-Health and Telemedicine in Latin America and the Caribbean: Innovation practices and standards” will deal with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impacts on the provision of Telemedicine and Telehealth services, with special emphasis on innovations and new tools and support standards in accordance with new norms and regulations, and harmonization and inter-operability, as thematic axes for regional dialogue on the design and implementation of health systems based on new technologies, which can also contribute to digital integration within the context of the regional cooperation and integration processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.