# Cosme Ordoñez, one of the promoters of the Family Doctor Program in Cuba, dies

**Date:** 11/13/2019

On the afternoon of November 12, 2019, Professor of Merit and Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, DrC. Cosme Ordóñez Carceller, passed away at the age of 92. He directed the Teaching Polyclinic "Plaza de la Revolución" for more than three decades, a place where the implementation of the Community Medicine model was tested and the training program for the Specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine was designed. He was also the Coordinator, since 1986, of the International Seminars on Primary Health Care.

His remains were cremated and today, Wednesday the 13th, the Funeral Honors were held at his beloved Polyclinic at 8:00 a.m.

Cosme Ordóñez Carceller (1927). Cuban physician, specialist in Epidemiology. Professor of Merit of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana. Distinguished hygienist, who has dedicated more than three decades to the development of primary health care.

Cosme Ordóñez was born in the city of Havana on January 5, 1927. He began his primary education in 1934 at the Colegio de Belén in his native city, where he graduated from high school in 1946. That same year he entered the University of Havana and received his doctorate in medicine in 1953. From 1954 until the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, he served as Instructor of the Chair of Clinical Medicine No. 8 in the Landeta Ward of the "General Calixto García" Hospital.

Following the revolutionary triumph, Dr. Ordóñez began his impressive development as a physician, professor, and politician. Specialist in Epidemiology since 1959, he was president of the Committee for Revolutionary Integration of the "La Purísima Concepción" Mutual Health Center, of the Association of Commerce Employees of Havana (1959-1960); second Chief of Public Health of Havana (1960); subdirector of the Havana Zonal Directorate (1960-1961); chief of the National Department of Epidemiology (1961); subdirector of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Province of Havana (1962); Full Professor of Epidemiology since 1962, and founder and chief of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the School of Medicine of the University of Havana (1963-1967). He completed a Diploma in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London (1966-1967) and obtained in Cuba the titles of First-Degree Specialist in Internal Medicine and Second-Degree Specialist in Epidemiology in 1966. Subsequently, he held the positions of Epidemiologist of the Regional "10 de Octubre" in Havana (1967); Vice-Director of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the Regional "10 de Octubre" (1968); Director of the medicine area of the Regional "10 de Octubre" (1970); Chief of the Health Department of the Faculty of Medicine No. 1 of the Higher Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana (ISCM-H), between 1973 and 1988, and of the "Comandante Manuel Fajardo" Faculty in 1979. He also chaired the National Commission of Polyclinics (1982) and taught, as Principal Professor, the subject "Society and Health" at the Institute of Medical Sciences of Havana in 1984.

He attained a Doctorate in Medical Sciences in 1985. Three years later, he was appointed Principal Professor of the subject "Society and Health" in the new study plan for the Medical career. He was granted the category of Consultant Professor in 1997 and that of Professor of Merit in 2002.

He is a member of renowned scientific societies, including the "Network of Educational Institutions Oriented Toward the Community" (WHO), of which he is a founder and Honorary Member; since 1961, he is a Full Member and member of the Board of Governors of the Cuban Society of Internal Medicine; Full Member—since 1964—and member of the Board of Governors—since 1973—of the Cuban Society of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Microbiology; Full Member and Founder of the Cuban Societies of Public Health Administration, Family Medicine and Health Sciences Education. He was an Advisory Member of the Board of Directors of the International Center for Family Medicine in 1997 and of the International Scientific Organization Pugwash in 1998. He is also a member of the World Organization of Family Doctors, WONCA; Honorary Member of the Uruguayan Society of Primary Health Care, and Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba.

Because of his vast experience in social epidemiology, Primary Health Care, and Family and Community Medicine, he has been requested by governments, international organizations, universities, and scientific societies from various countries to provide advice, serve on expert panels, conduct consultations, and carry out other activities. Thus, he has been a Member of the WHO Expert Committee on Human Resources; Consultant of the PAHO and WHO for Family Medicine; advisor to the Ministry of Public Health and to the Health Commission of the Cuban Parliament. He has been part of the Cuban delegation to the World Health Assembly of the WHO on sixteen occasions. He provided PAHO-WHO advisory services in Family Medicine to the Medical Faculties of the universities of Belo Horizonte and Minas Gerais in Brazil (1988); as well as in Guatemala (2000, 2003, 2004) and Uruguay (1986, 1987, 2004). He was also the chief of the group of Cuban experts who carried out the "Health Situation Diagnosis" program in Minas Gerais, in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and in Angola, and WHO Consultant in the Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe (1983), the Republic of Angola (1984), and in Libya for the Organization of Health Services (1980). He has been a member of the Cuban delegation to the World Habitat Meetings (Venezuela, 1974; Canada, 1975).

Among the most notable activities in his curriculum are having been the National Chief of the First Polio Vaccination Campaign in Cuba using Sabin oral vaccine in 1962. He also had notable performance on the advisory commission of Cuba's Minister of Health, which designed the new model of Primary Health Care and the new approach to Community Health (1973-1974).

But his greatest contribution has been his work at the Teaching Polyclinic Plaza de la Revolución in the city of Havana, which he directed for more than three decades, and since June 2008 as Honorary Director. This institution has been a laboratory where the Community Medicine Model has been tested and has contributed to its implementation and development; to the design of the training program for the Specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine; and also to the design and execution of clinical-epidemiological and social research on older adults in the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, whose results favored the decision to create in 1983 the forty-five Senior Citizens Circles that the Polyclinic has, which were subsequently used as a model throughout the country.

The Teaching Polyclinic Plaza de la Revolución has the status of National Reference Center for Primary Health Care and Family Medicine, and PAHO-WHO Collaboration Center for PHC and Family Medicine. The first twenty-eight specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine of Cuba were trained at that institution.

The rich professional, teaching, research, and scientific activity of Cosme Ordóñez has given him experience as an expert organizer of events, especially the International Congresses "Health for All," held in Cuba in 1983 and 1997; as well as in the coordination, since 1986, of the International Seminars on PHC (1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2006).

Among the numerous national and international events, lectures, symposia, and congresses in which he has participated, the following stand out: the 8th International Poliomyelitis Symposium (Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1962); the LXXI Congress of the "Royal Society of Health" (Great Britain, 1964); the 9th Conference of the Union of Medical Faculties and Schools of Latin America (UDUAL, Havana, 1976); the CV Congress of the American Public Health Association (Washington, D.C., United States, 1977); and the International Meeting for the organization and founding of the NETWORK for Community-Oriented Medical Education (Kingston, Jamaica, 1979). He has been part of Cuban delegations present at various World Health Assemblies organized by the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1984 to 2005. He participated in the First MERCOSUR Congress of Family Medicine in Punta del Este, Uruguay (1998); in the Meeting of Ministers of Health of Non-Aligned Countries that same year; and in the International Meeting of the Latin American Association of Social Medicine (ALAMES, Havana, 2000).

For his dedication and commitment to Primary Care and Community Medicine in his efforts to contribute to achieving Health for All by the year 2000, he has received numerous national decorations and recognitions, among which stand out the Honorary Title of Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba, the Carlos J. Finlay Order, and the Frank País Order.

He has also received numerous international recognitions, such as the León Bernard Prize for Social Medicine from the WHO (1990); the category of Ad Honorem Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (1996); the status of Distinguished Citizen of the City of Baltimore, United States (1999); that of Official Guest of the Municipalities of Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul (1995), Botucatu, São Paulo and Itahandú in Minas Gerais, Brazil (1996); that of Honorary Guest of La Plata (1996) and Mendoza (1999) in Argentina; the Diploma "Distinguished in Public Health" presented by PAHO-WHO (2002); and he has been an Honorary Member of the Uruguayan Society of Primary Health Care since 2006.