Roberto Cañete Villafranca, MD, MS, PhD

Visiting Scholar

Roberto Cañete Villafranca, MD, MS, PhD, is a titular member of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, director of the Matanzas Council of Scientific Societies of Health as well as senior researcher and professor of parasitology and bioethics at the University of Medical Sciences in Matanzas, Cuba. He is Vice-President of the Cuban Society of Microbiology and Parasitology in Havana, President of the Cathedra of Bioethics in Matanzas, and Invited Faculty of the Caribbean Research Ethics Education Initiative –CREEI. His areas of expertise include clinical trials, research ethics, ethics and public health, parasitology, and the development of public health professionals and students’ ethical attitudes and behaviors.

Dr. Cañete Villafranca received his MD degree at the University of Havana in 1997, and his certification as Master in Parasitology and Specialist in Medical Microbiology at the Tropical Medicine Institute Pedro Kourí in Havana in 2001 and 2002, respectively. In 2009, he received his PhD in Medical Sciences from Havana’s University of Medical Sciences with a dissertation about the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of alternative drugs in the treatment of Giardia duodenalis infection in children. He also received a post-Doctoral Training in Bioethics by the University of Brasilia, Brazil in 2010 and training in research ethics from different international organizations and institutions. 

Dr. Cañete Villafranca is the author of more than 70 scholarly articles and book chapters. His current research is focused on ethics and public health as well as in ethics research. He is also involved in programs for the control of intestinal parasitic infection at community level, and the designing and carrying out of clinical trials in resource-limited settings.

Selected Publications

  • Cañete R. Bioethics, Preventing through Education in Public Health. West Indian Medical Journal. 2016 May 20; DOI:10.7727/wimj.2016.104.
  • Cañete R, Brito K, Brito I, Semper A, Gonzalez ME. Effectiveness and Tolerability of 3-Day Mebendazole Treatment of Giardia duodenalis Infection in Adults and Children: Two Prospective, Open-Label Phase IV Trials. Current Therapeutic Research. 2018;89:43-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.curtheres.2018.11.002.
  • Damas OM, Sedki M, Lopez ME, Rodriguez FP, Del Valle Llufrio P, Garcia RA, Cañete, R, et al. Tu1936 - The Native Cuban Diet is Healthier than the Diet of Cubans Living in the US: Although Changes are Underway. Gastroenterology. 2018 May;154(6):S-1059. DOI: 10.1016/S0016-5085(18)33542-X.
  • Cañete R, Campos Y, Valdes R, Rodriguez P. Prevalence and factors associated with intestinal parasitic infection among schoolchildren from Jagüey Grande Municipality in Matanzas Province, Cuba. West Indian Medical Journal. 2017; 66 (2):361- 6. DOI: 10.7727/wimj.2014.288.
  • Abreu MT, Damas OM, Piñol Jiménez FN, Cañete Villafranca R. United States–Cuba Research Collaborations: Opening Bridges for Gastroenterology. Gastroenterology. 2017 May;152(6):1267-9.DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2017.03.011 
  • Cañete R. The Cuban Public Health System Focuses Research on Community Needs. Current Therapeutic Research. 2017;85:1.DOI: 10.1016/j.curtheres.2016.11.003.
  • Cañete R, Brito K, Guilhem D, Goodman KW. Perception and satisfaction with received information regarding treatment for intestinal parasitic infection in Cuban patients. West Indian Medical Journal. 2016; 65(3):519- 24. DOI:10.7727/wimj.2014.307.
  • Isasi R, Zuchner SL, Villafranca RC. Community genetics: Genetics boosts US-Cuban links. Nature. 2016 Nov 16; 539(7629):357. DOI: 10.1038/539357d
  • Cañete Villafranca R. Animales utilizados en experimentación, necesidad de su protección. Revista Médica Electrónica [Internet]. 2016 Jul- Ago; 38(4).  
  • Cañete R, Goodman KW. Cuba-US collaboration and the role of bioethics. Lancet. 2015 Mar 14; 385(9972): 945. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60523-2 
  • Cañete Villafranca R, Brito Pérez K, Valerio Urgelles LD, Marcel Sounouve K, Valdés Villafranca R. La membresía de las comisiones de Ética Médica. Revista Médica Electrónica [Internet] 2014, vol.36, n.4, pp. 493-498. ISSN 1684-1824.  
  • Cañete Villafranca R et al. Responsabilidad institucional y social en la investigación científica: institutional and social responsibility. Rev cubana med [online]. 2014, vol.53, n.1, pp.104-113. ISSN 0034-7523. 
  • Cañete Villafranca R, Damián Valerio Urgelles L. Las reuniones de las comisiones de ética médica. Rev Méd Electrón [Internet]. 2014 Ene-Feb; 36(1).  
  • Cañete Villafranca R, Guilhem D, Brito Pérez k. Paternalismo médico. Rev Méd Electrón [Internet]. 2013 Mar-Abr; 35(2):144- 52. ISSN 1684-1824.  
  • Cañete R, Prior A, Brito K, Guilhem D, Novaes MR, Goodman KW. Development of an institutional curriculum in ethics and public health. Acta Bioethica. 2013; 19 (2): 251- 7. DOI:10.4067/s1726-569x2013000200009

Contact Information 

Email: roberto.villafranca@infomed.sld.cu
Tel: +53-45-244591
      +53-53-289356

Council of Scientific Societies of Health
University of Medical Sciences
Matanzas City, Cuba. CP: 40100

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