Costa Rica's health care response to the pandemic

Speaker: Roman Macaya, PhD, Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow, HSPH
Moderated by: Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography; Chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Chair, Brazil Studies Program - DRCLAS

Ambassador Roman Macaya will discuss how Costa Rica played to the strengths of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, the sole provider of all public health care services, to respond to the pandemic. The conversation will cover challenges faced, critical decisions, and creative approaches taken to addressing the biggest health crisis of the past century.

Dr. Roman Macaya concluded his four-year term on May 8, 2022 as Executive President / Chairman of the Board of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (the “Caja”), the institution that provides all public health care services to Costa Rica's over 5 million residents under a system of universal coverage. The Caja provides services through its network of 29 hospitals, 105 large clinics, 1057 primary care units, and 63,000+ employees. The institution also manages the largest pension fund in Costa Rica. In this role, Dr. Macaya led the country's healthcare response to the COVID-19 He also led a cultural and regulatory change to promote and implement biomedical research pandemic. and innovation, deployed the largest investment in physical and technological infrastructure in the institution ́s 80-year history, advanced an ambitious digital transformation agenda, and launched novel programs as a public service, such as in vitro fertilization and CAR-T cell therapy. Dr. Macaya also led a reform of the pension system, securing sustainability through 2050. Prior to leading the “Caja”, Roman served as Costa Rica ́s Ambassador to the United States. He promoted science and health diplomacy, as well as collaborative initiatives in education, conservation, energy, security, migration, worker training, the arts, culture, and tourism. He worked on the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment and engaged closely with the White House, DOS, DHS, and Congress to strengthen Costa Rica's capabilities in drug interdiction. Roman has developed a multidisciplinary career as a biomedical scientist, businessman, diplomat, advocate, and public servant. As a scientist, Roman has led R&D teams in biomedical research and has authored scientific publications and patent applications. He has held leadership roles in the fields of clinical research, private equity, healthcare consulting, and agribusiness. Roman holds an MBA in Health Care Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UCLA, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Middlebury College. He is married and has four children.

Marcia Castro is Andelot Professor of Demography, Chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and Chair of the Brazil Studies Program of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS). Her research focuses on the development and use of multidisciplinary approaches to identify the determinants of infectious disease transmission in different ecological settings to inform control policies. She has more than 15 years of collaboration with Brazilian researchers, Health Secretariats, and the Ministry of Health particularly related to infectious diseases. She made important contributions during recent public health emergencies (the Zika virus epidemic and the COVD-19 pandemic). Castro has projects on malaria, COVID-19, arboviruses, infant/child mortality and development, and climate change in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, on COVID-19 she has been assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of COVID-19 spread in Brazil, mortality, and fertility changes due to the pandemic, risk factors for mortality, and vaccine effectiveness. She serves on several advisory boards in Brazil, including the Institute for the Studies of Health Policies (IEPS), the Science Center for Early Childhood (NCPI), and Instituto Todos Pela Saúde (ITpS). She earned a PhD in Demography from Princeton University.

Presented in collaboration with the Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health