Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC): a model for health collaborative studies

POLETTA FA; GILI JA; CASTILLA EE,

PUBLIC HEALTH GENOMICS

KARGER

Año: 2014 vol. 17 p. 6 - 7

1662-4246

During the mid-sixties, the pandemic of congenitalmalformations produced by a new medication, thalidomide,stunned the world and triggered the creation of registriesand surveillance systems in several countries, includingArgentina. In 1967, a clinical epidemiologic researchprogram started at the national Ministry of Healthin this country. It mainly focused on causal identification,aimed at primary prevention of congenital anomalies.This program is now recognized as ECLAMC: EstudioColaborativo Latinoamericano de Malformaciones Congénitas(Latin American Collaborative Study of CongenitalMalformations; http://www.eclamc.org) [1] .Based on its long-term survival of almost half a century,and great impact on the international scientific literature,ECLAMC proved to be a successful experience inhealth research in the developing world.More than 250 scientific publications generated fromdata collected by the ECLAMC program are indexed inPubMed [2] . ECLAMC constitutes an organizational innovation[3?5] , applicable to other health programs inlow- and middle-income countries and even to other disciplines than health. This paper was aimed to propose theessence of the ECLAMC structure hoping to initiate thedesign of similar programs in health sciences.