Fernando Domínguez Dieppa

Professor and Doctor of Medical Sciences Fernando Domínguez Dieppa was born into a humble family in the Luyanó neighborhood of Havana.

He completed his Primary Education at the Caribbean Military Academy, located in the current municipality of "10 de Octubre", from 1955 to 1961. He continued his basic secondary education at the "Fulgencio Oroz" school in Luyanó, between 1961 and 1964, and in 1966 he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sciences and Letters from the "Julio A. Mella" Pre-University Institute in Playa municipality.

He began studying medicine at the Institute of Basic and Preclinical Sciences "Victoria de Girón" in November 1966 and during his studies he was a teaching assistant in Biochemistry first, and later an external student in Internal Medicine at "Calixto García" Hospital, in addition to being a member of the Pediatrics Interest Circle at the newly inaugurated Children's Hospital of Central Havana (1970).
During his years of study, he obtained degrees from the school of languages in English and French, and subsequently also acquired knowledge of Russian and Italian.

He graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in January 1973 and in March of that same year he began rural medical service in the then Guantánamo regional area, belonging to the province of South Oriente, which he completed in February 1975. During that period he served as director of the health area of Jamaica-Tames first and later as regional chief of Pediatrics, teaching courses in Childcare and Pediatrics at the nursing school in Guantánamo.

Upon returning to Havana, he began a residency in Neonatology for the first year of Pediatrics at "Pedro Borrás" Children's Hospital, which he had to interrupt to carry out an internationalist mission in the People's Republic of the Congo (1975-1976) as a general physician in the capacity of pediatrician and neonatologist.
Upon returning from the Congo, he completed his Pediatrics residency with a focus on Neonatology at "Ramón González Coro" Hospital in Havana in April 1979. It was then that in 1980, he obtained through competitive examination the position of specialist in that institution, where he has continued working to this day.

He officially began his teaching career in 1980, upon obtaining through competitive examination the position of instructor in the Pediatrics teaching department, and subsequently (1983) he obtained the rank of assistant. In 1986 he obtained the title of second-degree specialist in Pediatrics and Neonatology and in 1989, also through competitive examination, he won the position of associate professor. In January 1997, through competitive examination, he obtained the position of full professor of Pediatrics and that same year he defended his Doctoral thesis in Medical Sciences, which received from the Ministry of Higher Education the distinction of best thesis of the year in the biomedical field.

Among the responsibilities he has held are those of Neonatology advisor to the Maternal and Child Department of the Provincial Public Health Directorate in Ciudad Habana (1980-1985), chief of the national Pediatrics group of the Ministry of Public Health (1997-2003), member of the Board of Governors of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics (since 1995) and president of the same during the period 2005-2011, in addition to other responsibilities he has held in that scientific society for more than 20 years.

As secretary or president, he has led the organizing or scientific committees of the national Pediatrics congresses held in Havana in the years 2001, 2005, 2008, 2013, and 2018; and in November 2010 he was assigned the task of presiding over the organizing committee of the VII Congress of the Ibero-American Society of Neonatology (SIBEN), held at the Palace of Conventions in Havana. He was part of the Board of Directors of the Latin American Association of Pediatrics (ALAPE) during two consecutive three-year periods (from 2006 to 2012) and was a member of the permanent committee for Latin America of the International Association of Pediatrics (IPA) (2007-2010).
Since 2010 he has been a member of the Children's Environmental Health Committee of that prestigious association. He has presided over Neonatology since 2006 for the rector's advisory commission (CARE) at the University of Medical Sciences of Havana, as well as the scientific council of the Faculty of Medical Sciences "Manuel Fajardo" since the 2011-2012 academic year. He belongs to the national tribunal for doctorates in clinical medical sciences, to the national ethics commission of MINSAP, and to the national commission of scientific degrees.

In the United States he was appointed honorary member of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2001 and honorary member of the American Society of Pediatrics in 2008. He is also an honorary member of the Dominican Medical Association and of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics since 2013.

With more than 30 scientific investigations related to neonatal health and/or neurodevelopment in high-risk neonates, he has participated in 126 national scientific events and 92 international events in which he has presented results of these investigations.
He has published 74 medical articles in scientific journals and textbooks, of which he is the principal author in 47. He has made 37 publications related to the teaching work of undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Since 2006 he is the principal editor and founder of the Cuban Pediatrics Portal.
He obtained through competitive examination the rank of principal researcher of the UCMH in 2008 and in 2015 he was conferred the status of Consultant Professor of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana.

He belongs to the Jury of the Annual Public Health Award and the Jury of the Annual Award of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. Since May 2018 he has been selected as a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, in its Biomedicine section, for the period 2018-2024.

To his credit are 6 awards received for some of his investigations, in addition to dozens of professional and academic recognitions, among which are the following decorations: internationalist worker, "Manuel Fajardo Rivero" Distinction, Distinction for Cuban Education, "José Tey" Medal, and "Frank País" Order, as well as the Giraldilla of Havana, awarded by the Provincial Government for his professional, academic, and research work. The Federation of University Students granted him in 1986 the status of Permanent Member for his historical connection with this organization.

Main contributions made to the specialty of Neonatology in Cuba
- He validated, introduced, and generalized in the country three foreign methods for the evaluation of gestational age in Cuban newborns.
- He was the first neonatologist in Cuba to apply positive pressure ventilation via nasal catheter (1979) in a maternity hospital, the first to initiate mechanical ventilation in newborns in that type of institution (1980), and to administer Cuban exogenous surfactant (Surfacén) via intratracheal route to a premature neonate with respiratory failure due to pulmonary immaturity (1990), in addition to having been a pioneer in the use of high-frequency ventilation in Cuban newborns.
- He created a methodology for the diagnosis, timely treatment, and prediction of neurodevelopmental sequelae in high-risk neonates.
- He introduced and applied in the country the Neonatal Resuscitation Program of the American Academy of Pediatrics (2001).
- He introduced EPOCIM in the prevention of anemia in premature infants in Cuba.
- He participated in the introduction of neurophysiological diagnostic methods in neonates in Cuba, as well as in the application of screening for neurodevelopmental deviations in children with perinatal risk factors using the NPED test (Cuban).
- He has introduced in the country the results of the consensus of the Ibero-American Society of Neonatology in which he has participated as an expert.