Walker, Christopher2013-12-102013-12-102013-12-10http://hdl.handle.net/10222/40667This thesis analyzes the Cuban medical adaptation in Venezuela called Misión Barrio Adentro (MBA) and seeks to answer the question of whether MBA shows promise as a health system that improves medical accessibility for impoverished and marginalized populations. In many cases MBA succeeds by: utilizing a free universal health care system; locating health centres in previously underserved areas; providing medical education scholarships to populations from non-traditional backgrounds; creating a catchment system based on medical accessibility; scaling up the medical workforce to 60,000 community doctors by 2019; and broadening the very praxis of what health means in a Latin American social medicine approach. However, some challenges remain including issues of corruption, fragmentation, and polarization. Issues regarding internal and external migration of Misión Sucre-trained physicians remain to be comprehensively evaluated. However, the capacitation of non-traditional medical personnel, imbued with conciencia, is significant and could well become an important example for other countries.eninternational developmenthuman developmenthealth care as a human rightVenezuelaCubaSouth-South cooperationMission Barrio AdentroMission SucreLatin American social medicineHugo Chávezmedical internationalismstructural violencehealth care as a human rightmedical educationpreventive and proactive caremedical accessibilitycommunity-oriented primary carerural-urban health disparityhealth in all policiespolitical willtransnationalization of policy learningcapacitationsoft policy toolspolarizationnon-traditional medical backgroundsmarginalized populationspovertyconcienciabio-psycho-social spheres of healthThesis