Panama will implement a platform for the registration and monitoring of health research protocols

In its National Health Policy 2016-2025, Panama established, among other points, to strengthen the National System of Research and Innovation for Health, with two very important provisions: to evaluate and integrate the scientific evidence generated by the research in the decision-making process to contribute to the well-being and health of the population; and to create the electronic database of the National System of Research and Innovation for Health.

The General Directorate of Public Health, through the National Coordination in Regulation of Research for Health has been advancing since its creation, among other things, the establishment of a registry of research protocols that is currently done manually via email. Once received, data is then loaded into an Excel spreadsheet available via the web. It is the desire of Panamanian authorities that this registry become a platform that can be accessed via the web by any user, and that meets the criteria to be a primary registry of the World Health Organization. Additionally, the intention is that users can access information and training, promoting its use.

And that is the objective of a project of the Ministry of Health of Panama: to develop a platform that allows the recording and follow up on research protocols according to primary registration criteria of the WHO. The project was one of the winners of the call for proposals for the implementation of IS4H projects promoted by the Pan American Health Organization.

Among the results that are expected to be obtained at the end of the project are:

1. Design of a web system, which allows registering and carrying out previous procedures at the beginning of execution of a health research protocol and its follow-up;
2. Web system, friendly to the user, that facilitates the traceability of research for health and, at the same time, offers researchers access to information and training opportunities;
3. Parameterizable tools for public health surveillance and informed decision-making with the web system within the framework of the proposed research protocols.

Given the growing demand for digitalization in public services, the Ministry of Health of Panama is seeking to provide alternatives that speed up and facilitate the management of health-related information and facilitate processes that in one way or another may Influence public health. The development of this web system to record and perform the procedures prior to the start of execution of a national health research protocol will be a very useful tool to facilitate the registration process and its proper follow-up.