Pedro A Valdes-Sosa
Cuban Neuroscience Center, Ave 25, Esq. 158, #15202, Cubanacan, Playa, Havana, Cuba.
Malays J Med Sci. 2012 Jan;19(1):1-3.
Brain disorders account for more than 34% of the global burden of disease, crippling nations by decreasing their "mental capital"-with greater effect in developing countries. Early detection is the key to their management, but establishing such programmes seems nearly impossible due to the high prevalence of the dysfunctions as compared with the high cost of neuroimaging devices. Thus, at first sight, the research of the Decade of the Brain and the international Human Brain Mapping Project might seem to be condemned to benefit only a small elite. Cuba has shown that is not so by using neurotechnology for the last 3 decades to implement stratified active screening programmes for brain disorders at the population level. This experience has shown that, by the transformation of health indicators, an appropriate use of technology can be integrated with attention to the population at the primary levels of both health care and education. An essential component of neurotechnology is neuroinformatics, which-like its counterpart bioinformatics-combines databases, analysis tools, and theoretical models to craft tools for early disease diagnosis and management. Much work remains to be done and will depend critically on south-south cooperation to solve problems for countries with similar situations.
脑部疾病占全球疾病负担的34%以上，通过减少“智力资本”使各国陷入困境，在发展中国家的影响更大。早期检测是管理这些疾病的关键，但由于功能障碍的高患病率以及神经成像设备的高成本，建立这样的项目似乎几乎不可能。因此，乍一看，脑科学十年研究和国际人类脑图谱计划似乎注定只能使一小部分精英受益。古巴在过去30年里通过使用神经技术在人口层面实施脑部疾病分层主动筛查项目，表明并非如此。这一经验表明，通过健康指标的转变，技术的适当应用可以与在医疗保健和教育的初级层面关注人群相结合。神经技术的一个重要组成部分是神经信息学，它与对应的生物信息学一样——将数据库、分析工具和理论模型结合起来，以打造早期疾病诊断和管理工具。仍有许多工作要做，这将严重依赖南南合作来为情况类似的国家解决问题。
