Argentina Field Epidemiology Training Program

Program overview

This residency in epidemiology is a graduate training program under the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Directorate. It was created in 2008 under the National System of Accreditation of Residences (law 22.127/80) which frames and regulates its activities (Ministerial Resolution 1993/2015, Annex I). Currently it has two seats: one at the Ministry of Health (CABA) and another at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases "Dr. Emilio Coni "(Province of Santa Fe). Initially, the different training processes developed under the Program for Health Surveillance and Disease Control (VIGIA) and, starting in 2001, the Specialization Program in Field Epidemiology (PRESEC), inspired by the program of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The residency is a three-year interdisciplinary program with a total of approximately 6,000 training hours. It requires full-time dedication. Its purpose is to train epidemiologists through an integrated program that includes in-service training, academic training and research, with a view to the inclusion of trained professionals in the different dependencies of the nation's Ministry of Health and other provincial and/or municipal jurisdictions, attending to the need to develop and/or strengthen areas of surveillance and epidemiological analysis. The residency organizes and distributes its activities through instances of academic training (30%) and in-service training spaces (70%). Annually, it holds between 10 and 14 sites for in-service training (epidemiology areas of provincial and municipal national offices, hospitals, research institutes, observatories), and develops between 12 and 15 courses and/or workshops with the support of a faculty comprised of the residency team, teaching staff from national universities, and professionals from the Ministry of Health.

Achievements

The residency program has consolidated and strengthened and formed a new headquarters in the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases "Dr. Emilio Coni" in the province of Sante Fe.

Each year, eight professionals enter the training program. Since its inception in 2010, the program has trained 30 epidemiologists with the following backgrounds:

  • 13 psychology graduates
  • 9 veterinarians
  • 1 general practitioner
  • 1 medical dentist
  • 1 biology graduate
  • 1 biochemistry graduate
  • 4 nutrition graduates