Guatemala
Introduction
The objective of this document is to present currently available data on pharmaceuticals and health technologies in Guatemala and to identify gaps in data availability pertaining to the Guatemalan health system, medicine, and health technology access.
Methodology
The list of indicators was prepared by the research team based on relevance and predicted availability of data. The document compiles data from two different sources: PAHO’s internal data that are provided mainly by the country government directly to PAHO are reported in the PAHO data column, while publicly‐available data are found in the Public Data column.
Search methodology to capture the Public Data involved open internet searches with Spanish and English‐language search terms relevant to each indicator. Data were taken from primary and secondary sources, with a preference for primary sources. When secondary sources cited primary sources, researchers located and cited the corresponding primary source.
Key data sources identified were departments of the Guatemalan government (Ministerio de Salud Pública y Asistencia Social and Departamento de Regulación y Control de Productos Farmacéuticos y Afines, Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social, among others), the World Health Organization, and USAID. Data were also included from the CIA, the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and academic publications.
Data were hand‐calculated by research staff in cases where component variables were available with which to derive the desired indicator (for example, percentage of adults over age 60).
Results
Gaps in available information were noteworthy in the research process. Fields in which information was largely unavailable included: pharmacy and radiology human resources; medical technology inventories and regulations; details on the functioning of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority, including adverse drug reaction reporting; and medicines availability and affordability and per capita consumption.
For other indicators, the lack of recent data was notable: some information on public procurement and essential medicines lists dated from 2002 or 2009, and information on Standard Treatment Guidelines had not been updated since 2010.
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