Final Report - 2nd Latin American Conference on Research and Innovation for Health. Panama, 23-25, November 2011

The  meeting  took  place  in  Panama City,  Panama,  from  the  23rd to the 25th of November 2011, and it brought together approximately 100 professionals from institutions and strategic programmes on research for health, science and technology. It was attended by representatives from agencies, institutions and  international cooperation organs, networks and regional, national and global research organisations, including some non-governmental organisations.

The central focus of the conference was devoted to deepening the concept of innovation for health, whilst linking it to the generation of new solutions to health problems, including not only tangible products, but also public goods, work processes, organisational behavior and the behaviour of people that are associated with health services. Innovation creates new products, new results and new services, and it is the simple and low-cost solutions to problems that can be of the most value to society.

The conference produced a total of 15 presentations and 12 reports summarised in three presentations and two reports of satellite sessions from two regional networks. They all convey the general conditions existing in low and middle-income countries in the region, and they also highlight the initiatives that are being generated for innovation and for research for health. They emphasise the achievements in the and in institutionalisation of research for health, the incorporation of different players in prioritising research needs and in creating public financial funding to support these activities. These reports also describe the difficulties that are still faced by local research systems to meet research needs and the training of young researchers to generate stimuli for innovation and for research for health. They also draw attention to the still emerging recognition that society gives the activities of the researcher.


Final Report: 2nd Latin American Conference on Research and Innovation for Health. Panama, 23 - 25, November 2011
By Council on Health Research for Development.  Based on a work at www.cohred.org.
ISBN 978-92-9226-053-8.