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CONICET's Translational Health Research Network is coordinating efforts to advance in translational medicine. Health researchers initiate and focus their research with the aim of improving the health and quality of life of the population. An efficient research system should address health problems relevant to the population resulting in interventions and outcomes important for patients and health professionals. Recommendations to achieve this involve large thematic areas like (a) to set research priorities; (b) to improve research methodology; (c) to make research management and regulation transparent; (d) to increase accessibility to all results; and (e) to improve research dissemination. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has been a clear demonstration of how the country's research system has united the most diverse disciplines to jointly provide solutions to address it. An active and transparent mechanism to identify priorities in the country and to unite funding and research efforts to provide solutions to those priorities is proposed. Translational health research means the joint work of the most diverse health research disciplines in order to jointly obtain efficient and effective interventions to improve the health and quality of life of the population.

Background: In recent years, rising rates of caesarean section are of concern in the medical community in many countries, especially in Latin America., Objective: Determine if there is a difference in the rate of Caesarean sections in a restricted-access hospital (HC) and an open-access hospital (HA) using the Robson classification to explain potential differences., Material and Method: A prospective cohort study was conducted. This in volved all patients that attended the obstetrics sector in the two hospitals in Buenos Aires where they gave birth between 1 June 2009 and 25h January 2010. The open-access hospital is open to doctors with varying professional training and differing clinical practice. The restricted-access hospital, on the other hand, can only be attended by specified doctors with certain professional training; their medical) conduct is based on service standards and clinical practice., Results: Over the study period 762 patients who fulfilled the study criteria were included from the open-access hospital and 768 from the restricted-access hospital. The global rate of caesarean sections in the HAwas 53.5%, and 48.7% in the HC, RR 1.09 (CI 0.99-1.21) a difference that was not statistically significant (p = 0.058). The onset of spontaneous labour in the HAwas significantly more than in the HC (74.9% vs. 41.8%) RR 2.66 (CU.98-3.57). The induced labour was significantly lower in HA (9,7% vs. 28,3%); RR 0.34 (CI 0.27-0.44). Elective caesarean sections were significantly lower in the HA (15.3% vs. 29.9%) RR 0.51 (CI 0.42-0.62)., Conclusion: This study reveals a similar rate of caesarean sections in two private hospitals with different systems of care. However, it observed that the HA has a greater tendency to operate on patients at the onset of spontaneous labour and the HC has a greater number of induced labour and elective caesarean section.

Argentina and Uruguay are among the countries in which a large proportion of young women smoke. The rate of smokers during pregnancy in both countries is not well known, and data on the characteristics of women who quit smoking during pregnancy compared to those who continue smoking are not available. We conducted a survey including 1512 pregnant women > or = 18 years old (796 in Argentina; 716 in Uruguay), during antenatal visits in public hospitals of large urban regions; 44% of the women in Argentina and 53% in Uruguay had been or were regular smokers. 11% of the surveyed women in Argentina and 18% in Uruguay continued smoking during pregnancy. In both countries, the proportion of women who lived with smokers, allowed smoking at home, and were regularly or always exposed to tobacco smoke indoors, were 49%, 46% and 20% in the subgroup of women who never smoked, 67%, 60% and 32% in those who quit, and 78%, 75% and 52% in those who continued smoking, respectively. The study confirms a serious public health problem in both countries, and documents that environmental exposure persists in subgroups of women, even in those who quit smoking. It is important that the public health sector should provide access to effective programs for smoking cessation, to women who smoke during pregnancy. For the development of a new program, any intervention intending to have at least a moderate and sustainable success, it should seriously consider including components targeting the smoking environment of the pregnant women who smoke.

Background: A relevant component to achieve high quality of care is the implementation of evidence based practices., Objective: To assess in two maternities in the South of Chile, the use of evidence based practices in labour and delivery care., Patients and Methods: In two hospitals, 205 women after delivery were interviewed. Eleven forms of care were selected from the classification provided by the WHO Reproductive Health Library, four as beneficial forms of care and seven as forms of care likely to be harmful., Results: Beneficial forms of care were used between 17 to 46% and forms likely to be harmful between 17 and 98%. No association among the use of the practices and some maternal characteristics, such as age, parity and years on school, were found. Women interpretation about benefits of the practices is not in agreement with the evidence provided by the trials., Conclusions: A low adherence to evidence based practices was observed since some practices of proven benefit are poorly used and many practices likely to be harmful are highly used. There is a need to look for strategies aimed at the better use of evidences based practices considering among these strategies women empowerment.

Background: Quality of care can be measured by the rate of use of beneficial and ineffective or deleterious practices., Objective: To perform a survey of the use of maternal and perinatal care practices in public maternities of Uruguay, and to know the opinions and perspectives of the users concerning some of these practices., Material and Methods: Cross-sectional hospital based descriptive study. For the prevalence study, a questionnaire filled with data taken from hospital records and a women survey were used. For the opinion study, a women questionnaire during early postpartum period was done., Results: 773 women from 12 hospitals were enrolled in the study. The rate of administration of corticosteroids in women with risk of preterm delivery was < or = 40%. Periconceptional folic acid administration, psychosocial support during labour, active management during the third stage of labour, and supine position of the newborn, showed rates of utilization lower than 35%. Episiotomy and perineal shaving showed rates of use higher than 50%., Conclusions: Some evidence-based beneficial health care practices are still not routinely implemented in public hospitals. Ineffective and even harmful practices are still used.