CubaPLUS Magazine

The facility in which the Faculty of Health Technology is located today was founded in 1984 as the Dr. Salvador Allende Polytechnic Health Institute. In 2002, it became the Training School for Emerging Health Technicians and in 2003 it became the Faculty of Health Technology. As such, it was part of the network of Havana University’s Medical Sciences educational centers and was also a Methodological Center for the training of pre and postgraduate professionals and technicians linked to health technologies.

The creation of the Faculty responded to the demands of the National Health System which required trained competent professionals in order to offer the population excellent services related to medical technologies.

Starting in 2010-2011, taking into account the country’s guidelines for economic development and Plan D for Higher Education, a new training model was established that integrated several of the Cuban National Health System’s 21 existing technical profiles according to areas of knowledge, forming eight careers:

1. Clinical Bioanalysis

2. Health Rehabilitation

3. Imagenology and Medical Radio Physics

4. Health Information Systems

5. Optometry and Optics

6. Hygiene and Epidemiology

7. Nutrition and Dietetics

8. Phonoaudiology

Those profiles that had related careers at other universities were only offered to the technician level. Hence, as of the 2011-2012 academic year, technical health training reappeared, independent of the undergraduate degree and in different specialties, which would be completed as of the 2012-2013 academic year, giving rise to the so-called technical careers.

1. Radiology Technician

2. Medical Biophysics Technician

3. Dental Care Technician

4. Clinical Analysis Technician

5. Transfusional Medicine Technician

6. Cytohistological Technician

7. Allergy and Immunology Technician

8. Hygiene and Epidemiology Technician

9. Vector Monitoring and Control Technician

10. Orthopaedic Prosthesis Technician

11. Podology Technician

12. Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Technician

13. Traumatology Technician

14. Occupational Therapy Technician

15. Social Health Work Technician

16. Parmaceutical Servises Technician

17. Dietetics Technician

18. Health Statistics Technician

19. Phonoaudiology and Speech Therapy Technician

20. Electromedicine Technician

21. Dental Prosthesis Technician

22. Optometry and Optics Technician

23. Normal and Pathological Physiology Technician

On November 18, 2002, the Health Technologists Training Program was launched, which to date has graduated tens of thousands of health technicians as well as Health Technology graduates across the country. At the first graduation in September 2003, presided by Fidel Castro at the Astral Theater, he suggested the creation of the Faculty of Health Technology as part of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, as well as the extension of the training model to the whole country. Also emerging were the Faculty of Health Technology of Villa Clara, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba, linked to the respective medical universities, a process that was developed during the course of 2003 -2004.

The results of this program constitute the guarantee of human resources in health technology, necessary for the Cuban health system and to satisfy international demands for Cuba’s medical collaboration in countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia among others. These countries have directly benefited from this program through training of its young people, adding to the prestige of Cuban public health and demonstrating the value of of this program.

The center has a Student Residence for the accommodation of international students, where they receive careful attention and human warmth in the midst of a Cuban family. The Faculty of Health Technology is also a place for cultural and educational exchanges among foreign students within Havana’s University of Medical Sciences.

The Faculty of Health Technology’s mission is to be the center of higher education that trains professionals in the technological area, with solid ideological, aesthetic, ethical, scientific-technical preparation and a system of convictions characterized by strong human qualities, conscious discipline and deep feelings of collectivism that allow the graduate to work in health services and to continuously develop at the postgraduate level.

The Faculty of Health Technology, in its vision, contributes to the training of professionals in eight careers linked to the areas of health technologies. Highly competitive, and with the ability to exercise supporting functions for health promotion, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of healthy and/or sick people, in addition to administrative, educational and investigative functions in order to transform health services at different levels, contributing to continuous development through post-graduate studies.

Master’s Degree in Imaging Technologies

The Imaging Technologies Master’s degree responds to the growing need to improve the professional and human performance of health professionals in charge of training and obtaining medical images for the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. These professionals contribute to solving health problems as part of multidisciplinary health teams that combine intelligence and scientific rigour with humanity making them a socially active force in health services.

Master’s Degree in Phonoaudiological Alterations

All Cuban professionals whose work profile is linked to the topics or requirements indicated below are encouraged to request the second edition of the Phonoaudiological Alterations (Speech-language disorders) Master’s Degree. The mastery responds to the need to solve health problems related to the affections of human communication, through the use of the scientific method. The research results derived from it will allow for the planning of activities for preventive activities and promote health, improving quality of life and lowering the economic cost. It is expected that it will facilitate the study of aphonia and dysphonias, alterations that occur frequently in voice professionals, teachers, speakers and actors, among others. The program aims to develop capacities for research, innovation and cognitive independence, so that they can meet the new challenges in line with the economic, social and cultural needs of the country. The program offers the possibility to the need to find solutions to human communication disorders through the use of scientific method.

Doctoral Training

The Faculty has a doctoral training group that answers to the Doctoral Tutelar Training Program in Health Technology, whose general objective is to promote the competences and professional values required for the development of technologies and their epistemic basis in the field of medical sciences, theoretical approaches (methodological and organizational) as well as their implementation. They are based on agreed criteria, derived from postgraduate experiences, research processes and the scientific-investigative experience demonstrated by the professionals involved in this program, in addition to the satisfactory results obtained with the strategy used in doctoral training.

bull; Child language development

bull; Voice and diction program for future voice professionals

bull; Early intervention in communication disorders

bull; Auditory stimulation

bull; Child’s language delay

bull; Chronic dysphonia

bull; Aphasias and dysarthrias

bull; Laryngectomies