Established under late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Misión Barrio Adentro (MBA) — Venezuela’s adaptation of the Cuban social medical model — utilizes a free, universal health care system to serve and educate rural, poor and marginalized populations and to broaden the very praxis and ideology of what health means in a true Latin American social medicine approach. MBA moves beyond conventional medicine to form a true community-oriented primary care system

Through qualitative research with personnel from both sides of the political spectrum in Venezuela, Venezuela’s Health Care Revolution offers a unique analysis of MBA’s ability to empower marginalized populations to become health care providers for their own medically vulnerable and under-served communities. Further, Chris Walker argues that the potential of this medical approach is significant not just in Latin America but in Canada and the United States as well.

Chris Walker is a PhD candidate at Saint Mary’s University and the author of several publications on Cuban medical adaptations as well as on the cultural constructions of health care, medical education, rural/urban medical disparities and the connections between politics, health and poverty.

Chris Walker is a PhD candidate at Saint Mary’s University and is the author of a number of publications on Cuban medical adaptations as well as on the cultural constructions of health care, medical education, rural/urban medical disparities and the connections between politics, health and poverty.

Chris Walker's profile page

“This book shows that another approach to public healthcare is possible. Chris Walker offers insights into a successful alternative to the conventional approach to medicine, and provides an invaluable lesson about healthcare to us in our own ’developed’ country.”

John M. Kirk, Dalhousie University