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December 17, 2014 12:00 AM

Renewed U.S.-Cuba relations could impact both nations' healthcare

Adam Rubenfire
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    U.S. and Cuban healthcare providers could benefit from renewed U.S.-Cuban relations announced Wednesday by President Barack Obama, industry experts said. U.S. devicemakers, in particular, could soon have access to a new market hungry for its products.

    “My heart goes out to the Cuban physicians that are down there because they are extremely well-trained and have no access to what they need,” said Dr. Pedro Jose Greer Jr., a Cuban-American who is associate dean for community engagement at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University.

    Cuban doctors don't need better training, they need better technology and hospitals that aren't going bankrupt, Greer said. With renewed relations between the two countries, Greer is hopeful that U.S. devicemakers and pharmaceutical companies will be able to sell their coveted products in Cuba.

    But it isn't just Cuban patients that stand to benefit. U.S. doctors can learn from the country's exemplary approach to primary care, Greer said. Loosened restrictions could allow Cuba's state-run vaccine industry to ship more of their high-quality products to the United States, where they could be distributed to underserved populations at cheaper prices than American vaccines, he said.

    Though a meningococcal vaccine from Cuba is available for treatment in the U.S., few other drugs are, said Mavis Anderson, an expert in U.S. Cuba-relations and a senior associate with the Latin America Working Group, a foreign policy activist organization. Activists have been trying to get permission to bring several different Cuban drugs to the U.S., including innovative diabetes medication and several promising cancer drugs.

    Cuban doctors lack access to most American pharmaceutical products and suffer particularly from not being able to obtain third-generation antibiotics, because most are made by U.S. companies or their subsidiaries, Anderson said.

    Celebrating in the streets

    LAWG sent a letter Wednesday to Obama from a group of scientists, including medical scientists, that urges the president to ensure that doctors and other scientists will be able to travel to the country.

    The letter also asks the president to permit U.S. government agencies, including the National Institutes if Health, to grant funds to scientists traveling to Cuba for research or conferences, and to simply the visa review process for Cuban professionals who want to do research or attend conferences in the U.S.

    “The importance of dialogue and knowledge exchange in these areas is crucial,” Anderson said.

    The U.S. State Department's Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program, announced in 2006, has enticed some doctors to come work in the United States, as the program allows. Though Greer speculated that, if allowed, Cuban doctors may now be even more likely to leave their country for better job opportunities in the U.S., Anderson said loosened economic sanctions may encourage them to stay put and reap the benefits that could come from improvements in the country's healthcare system.

    “It's going to make life easier. Cubans are out in the streets celebrating because of the changes that the president has made,” Anderson said. “Rather than encouraging them to leave, it's going to encourage them to stay in their country.”

    Obama called the U.S. embargo on Cuba an “outdated approach” that has failed to advance both countries' interests, and declared that the U.S. will immediately begin discussions on re-establishing diplomatic relations, which were severed in January 1961. Several new policies will ease economic restrictions, including allowing U.S. banks to do more business in Cuba, permitting Americans to provide business training to Cuban businesses and allowing professionals to travel to the island nation for meetings and research.

    Follow Adam Rubenfire on Twitter: @arubenfire

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