The Ministry of Health and Sports in collaboration with UMSA and with the support of the Pan American Health Organization launches a Diploma in Medicine and Vaccine Logistics for the Expanded Program on Immunization – PAHO/WHO

La Paz, September 25, 2023 (PAHO) – With the aim of providing PAI specialists with knowledge about the requirements for correct distribution standards, quality systems and logistics for pharmaceutical products, as well as vaccines, the Ministry of Health and Sports (MSyD) in collaboration with the University launched Mayor de San Andres (UMSA), with the support of the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and funding from the Government of Canada, Diploma in Pharmaceutical and Vaccine Logistics.

Under the PAHO-WHO Technical Cooperation Plan 2023 with the MSyD EPI Program on Immunization, the investment to be made is US$26,353, which is intended to fund the tuition fees and enrollment of 36 students.

In a special ceremony attended by the Minister of Health and Sports, Maria Rene Castro; Dean of UMSA, Oscar Heredia Vargas; PAHO/WHO Representative in Bolivia, Dr. Alma Morales Salinas; Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at UMSA, Engineer Martin Maiori, University authorities, PAI and MSyD, the postgraduate course was launched. It was also an opportunity for MSyD and UMSA to conclude an inter-institutional collaboration agreement to enhance human resources training in health through strong immunization practices.

In specific words, Dr. Morales highlighted the importance of training human talent. He said that “…so that countries can promote and strengthen the first level of care capable of responding to the health needs of the population, we need to train human resources associated with models of management, provision and financing. The country decides.”

He therefore celebrated the signing of the agreement between UMSA and the Ministry of Health and Sports to train professionals with a focus on immunizations. “I like to call it the main link,” he said. “Breastfeeding immunization remains one of the most cost-effective strategies out there in the public health world,” he added.

For his part, University President Heredia stated that “when human talent is enhanced, the university feels recognized as a strategic factor in the country, because it is human resources that work accordingly in developing technology transfer and understanding of technology.” To do things, know and experience.

“This kind of alliance in the field of health allows us to integrate into education and training policies in different fields… This means that as a university we are recovering that trilogy that says state, university, society,” Heredia stressed. “We as a university receive resources from the Bolivian people and we train Professionals who then place them at the service of the Bolivian people.”

For the diploma, PAHO, UMSA and PAI, accredited to the MSyD, worked collectively to develop a curriculum design targeting personnel related to the logistics field of PAI at national and departmental levels. The diploma is organized into modules: Logistics and Medical Supply Chain; Supply logistics; Transportation management; stores management; Distribution logistics; And safety at work.

The diploma lasts for 6 months, starting this September and ending in April 2024, with 920 hours of study in the virtual mode, with synchronous hours through video conferences for students and teachers, and asynchronous hours with work on the Moodle platform.

Minister Castro expressed that “this certificate will give additional skill and additional knowledge to doctors and nursing graduates who are in health networks and who fight every day regarding the issue of vaccination.” “This training should be continuous and up-to-date, and should allow health workers to respond to any type of emergency, not just small outbreaks like whooping cough, but to think about responding to future epidemics,” he added.

The objectives of the diploma are to analyze the basic concepts of inventory theory, delve into control techniques, and the cost and economic impact of inventories; Analysis of inventory management techniques, information sites and policy; Deepen knowledge of supply and procurement management activities, and develop skills in using organization and planning tools for supply and purchasing systems; Providing professionals with the basic elements that characterize modern logistics services, as a means of increasing competitiveness.

It also seeks to ensure that employees know the strategies and tactics to achieve logistics excellence to apply at PAI; Providing professionals with the basic elements to apply and implement measures for the optimal handling of the flow of materials, information and values ​​in the transformation process, from the acquisition of factors of production to the delivery of the final product in distribution; Finally, deepen knowledge of management and distribution activities, and develop skills in using tools for organizing and planning distribution systems.

The Ministry and the University Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA) are working together within the framework of training and strengthening human resources skills in the field of health, and in 2022 there is a precedent for the development of the Diploma in Management and Expanded Management Program on Immunization (PAI) in technical and financial cooperation with PAHO/WHO and UNICEF. . Nearly 250 health professionals nationwide have benefited from this certificate.

In this sense, during the last quarter of 2022, PAI together with the Pan American Health Organization/WHO initiated negotiations with the Industrial Research Institute, which is based on the Industrial Engineering profession at the UMSA Faculty of Engineering, on this new postgraduate course aimed at improving the Logistics. Vaccine management, through which it aims to deepen and update the knowledge and skills of the staff responsible for the logistics area in the district health services and in the national PAI.