HEARTS Pharmacy, a project within the HEARTS in the Americas Initiative, provides a framework to integrate pharmacists into primary health care. Pharmacists are highly respected in health care but face challenges, such as limited scope of practice, regulatory barriers, and insufficient recognition, compounded by social norms that hinder their full potential. This paper presents compelling evidence that pharmacist-led interven- tions improve blood pressure control, lower cardiovascular risk, and reduce health care costs.

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots in preventing teenage pregnancy compared with traditional methods of sex education or no intervention. 

Objective

To assess the effects of the current use of artificial intelligence (AI) in women’s health on health equity, specifically in primary and secondary prevention efforts among women. 

Methods

Two databases, Scopus and PubMed, were used to conduct this narrative review. The keywords included “artificial intelligence,” “machine learning,” “women’s health,” “screen,” “risk factor,” and “prevent,” and papers were filtered only to include those about AI models that general practitioners may use. 

The private health sector has expanded significantly in recent decades, both in Latin America and other regions. Governments and international organizations have dealt with this process in a heterogeneous manner. A policy approach and, above all, a regulatory framework, are required in order to put health objectives and the right to health above the profit motive that drives private sector participation. This paper reviews frameworks for analyzing the performance of health systems and the regulation of financing and service provision, primarily (but not exclusively) in the private sector.

Objective

To map critical factors for sustainable processes in the institutionalization of evidence-informed decision-making in public health organizations. 

Method

A rapid critical interpretative synthesis was carried out based on searches conducted in databases, websites, and reference lists, with findings categorized into an appropriate framework. 

Objective

To describe the results, achievements, and lessons learned through administrative coverage and rapid monitoring of a follow-up vaccination campaign, in the context of political prioritization and micro-planning as determining factors in the different stages of follow-up campaigns, and the application of these good practices to strengthen the National Immunization Program. 

Objective

To determine associations between demographic characteristics, alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking (HED), and cardiovascular risk factors using the 2016 Guyana World Health Organization (WHO) STEPwise noncommunicable diseases risk factor survey. 

Methods

A weighted sample was used in a secondary analysis of data obtained from an online database. Descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression, and linear regression models were applied to identify which subpopulations were at highest risk of HED or cardiovascular disease. 

We aimed to assess how control measures during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the metabolic health of people with noncommunicable diseases when severe restrictions on movement and safety concerns prevented the use of traditional methods of health data collection. To identify study participants, we attempted to use hospital laboratory databases in Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Objective

To quantify the occurrence of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) cases in Brazil from January 2013 to May 2023. 

Methods

A descriptive study was conducted on VAPP cases reported as events supposedly attributable to vaccination or immunization (ESAVI) following oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) administration. VAPP cases were defined as acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) with isolation of vaccine-derived poliovirus in stool samples and persistence of motor deficits after 60 days. 

Objective

To establish baseline seroprevalence of soil-borne, waterborne, and foodborne diseases and to monitor diseases that are eliminated or on the path to elimination in the Paraguayan Chaco.