Health screening at age 50: foundational health technology of primary care that demands innovation

Abstract

Introduction: Dispensarization celebrates 50 years as a health technology and methodological axis of Primary Health Care in Cuba. Derived from the adaptation of the Soviet model and consolidated in the Family Doctor and Nurse Program, it involves the registration, assessment, intervention, and continuous follow-up of the population's health status. Despite its strategic value, evidence persists of underutilization, formal compliance, and obsolescence of its traditional supports.

Objective: To substantiate the need to vindicate dispensarization as a health technology susceptible to innovation and to argue the urgency of its technological update in the first level of care.

Author's position: The authors maintain that dispensarization should be understood as a procedural and systemic health technology, which implies assuming that it is susceptible to improvement and innovation. Its strategic function as a population-based surveillance system was evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and international experiences on the value of primary care data for health intelligence are shown. It is argued that its main challenge is not to maintain its validity, but to transform it through the digitalization of its supports and its resignification as a management tool at all levels of the system.

Conclusions: Dispensarization is the foundational technology of the Cuban Primary Health Care model. Its update through digital transformation and its consolidation as a health intelligence system constitute an urgent need to respond to the demographic, epidemiological and managerial challenges of the 21st century.