Carlos Slim Foundation and UVM implement the MIDO® prevention strategy

The Coyoacan campus of the Universidad del Valle de Mexico(UVM) hosted the inauguration ceremony of the Integrated Measurement for Timely Detection(MIDO®).

Under the agreement signed earlier this year between Carlos Slim Foundation (CSF) and the UVM, which is part of Laureate International Universities, UVM Institutional Director Dr. Bernardo Gonzalez Arechiga recognized the importance of preventive health care in people’s lives to avoid the development of chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension, among others.

In addition, Gonzalez Arechiga highlighted the effort of the Foundation to contribute with free of charge specialized information of high impact in Health Sciences in the world.

“Carlos Slim Foundation has made available a large number of medical journals with Spanish-language translation and free access,” González said.

Ricardo Mujica Rosales, Executive Director of CSF, said the two main pillars for the Foundation are education and health, and the UVM- MIDO® partnership is the union of both elements.

“This alliance with the UVM, allows us innovating, carrying out other type of tests and bring them to a truly integral attention. Learn from what is being done here in the university and then take it to the footsteps of a public policy,” added the Executive Director.

The agreement between the institutions consists in developing education and health promotion programs, oriented to the prevention of diseases for the benefit of UVM students and the most vulnerable groups of society.

Through the MIDO® program, a screening protocol for five risk factors (weight, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and renal function) has been established to determine the physical condition of the individuals and to identify if they have a noncommunicable disease. Currently, the model developed by CSF is part of the National Strategy against Diabetes and Obesity, operating in 26 states of the Republic.

Finally, Mujica Rosales mentioned some of the scope of the MIDO® model nationally: “There are more than 800 thousand people who have taken the MIDO® test and we have found interesting results. Five percent of this total had no previous diagnosis of diabetes and it was already suffering from this disease, that is, for the first time they were given a result to take action. On the other hand, 13 percent of this grand total had pre-diabetes, a time when steps can be taken to change their fate.”

The presentation was attended by Dr. Alejandra Costa Aizcorbe, rector of the Southern Campus of the UVM; Dr. Fernando José Macouzet Romero, director of the UVM School of Health Sciences; Dr. Federico Miguel Lazcano Ramírez, Director of Education and Research at the Ministry of Health of Mexico City; and Dr. Simone Nomie Sato, Academic Vice-Rector of the UVM School of Health Sciences.