01 Jun Farewell to Dr Francisco Rojas Ochoa: 60 Years Building Cuban Public Health
June 1, 2020—For six decades, Dr Francisco Rojas Ochoa was a physician, teacher, health system builder, writer, editor, student and researcher. And always a defender of scientific rigor in favor of health for all. “His death on May 30th is a loss to family, friends, Cuban public health and to everyone who believes that health systems should serve all their people equally, with the best of care and preventive medicine,” said Dr Peter Bourne, chair of MEDICC’s Academic Council of which Dr Rojas Ochoa was a member.
Among his many honors is the PAHO Award for Health Administration in the Americas (2005); the Carlos J. Finlay Medal (Cuba’s highest tribute in medicine), Cuba’s Annual Health Prize for his book Vaccines: Cuba 1959-2008 and his election as a distinguished member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. He is credited with creating the specialty of biostatistics in Cuba, established the Institute for Development of Health Sciences in Havana, and served as editor of the Revista Cubana de Salud Pública (Cuban Journal of Public Health) for 30 years.
“MEDICC Review was honored to have him as an Editorial Board member and author. Several of the journal’s articles reflect his own outstanding career as a public health pioneer,” said Dr William Keck, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief. He referenced two in particular: A Personal Reflection on Rural Service 50 Years Later, an account of the professor’s 1960s experience as a founder of Cuba’s Rural Medical Service, an initiative of recent medical graduates who voted overwhelmingly to devote a period after graduation to serve in the island’s rural and remote regions. “Those of us who worked in Cuba’s countryside—even for a short time—still carry «rural doctor» as a badge of honor and pride,” noted Dr Rojas Ochoa in the introduction.
The second MEDICC Review article was published in October 2019: Cuba’s Maternity Homes, 1962–2017: History, Evolution, Challenges, once again reflecting the pioneering role of Dr Rojas Ochoa, who in 1962 established the first Cuban maternity home, an institution that would become a pillar of care for pregnant women at risk.
Never fearing to offend with honest criticism, Professor Rojas Ochoa recently told a journalist: “As doctors, we are still concentrating mostly on sick people. Many don’t want to talk enough about the social determinants of health that today cause more damage than biological factors.”
“In these days, when we are acutely aware of how unequally the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting different populations, his words ring truer still,” said Dr Keck.
MEDICC and MEDICC Review are honored to join family, friends and colleagues throughout the Americas paying deserving tribute to the life and work of the extraordinary human being who was Francisco Rojas Ochoa. We continue to draw on his critical thinking, devotion to science and example.