Objective.

To identify the managerial actions proposed and employed to reduce the waiting time to initiate oncological treatments in the public health system and its application in Latin America.

Method.

We searched seven databases in December 2020. Search terms were conceptualized into three groups: waiting time, cancer, and terms related to public sector. The eligibility criteria included theoretical or empirical academic articles written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, that focused on managerial solutions to face oncological healthcare queues' dilemma.

This letter to the editor is only available in Spanish.

This letter to the editor is only available in Spanish

This letter to the editor is only available in Spanish.

Dear editor,

[Extract]We read with interest the review article by Matar-Khalil about neuro-COVID (1). The author concluded that the exact mechanisms of brain damage from SARS-CoV-2 have not yet been elucidated, and that it is necessary to continue with longitudinal and international research, including studies that include epidemiological, clinical and diagnostic variables to define them and establish their implication in mental health, as well as its long-term consequences (1). The study is appealing but raises concerns that should be discussed. [...]

The number of people with cardiovascular diseases is a leading public health problem. The Ministry of Health of Mexico and the local representative office of the Pan American Health Organization have joined forces to implement the “HEARTS: technical package for cardiovascular disease management in primary health care.” The objective of this article is to describe the implementation design of the “Healthy-lifestyle counselling” module, which is part of the HEARTS technical package.

The objective of this article is to describe how governance and political will have influenced the implementation of the HEARTS Initiative for the prevention and control of hypertension in the Peruvian health system.
The governance process is described and a secondary data analysis compares baseline levels at the start of HEARTS phase 1 with observed levels after the first six months of follow-up in 34 health facilities.

During the past decade progress has been made from a public health perspective in advancing tobacco taxation policies in the World Health Organization’s Region of the Americas, and there are important lessons to be learned from this experience. This report aims to systematize and distill the key lessons learned, both by documenting progress and paving the way toward a comprehensive approach to taxing other health-harming products, particularly those considered to be drivers of the noncommunicable disease epidemic, such as alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages.