Ruth C. Salcedo is a graduate student of the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University where she is pursuing a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management. She was born in Lima, Peru and studied at University of Lima, where she earned her degree in Economics. Ms. Salcedo has 12 years of work experience in the governmental institutions of Peru. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon University, she served in the Tax Administration and Customs of Peru (SUNAT) and the Health Care Social Security (ESSALUD). In each of these institutions, she has worked as a manager in several Policy Analysis areas as well as in Business Intelligence. Her work ranged from analyzing indicators, designing new processes, proposing law changes, to leading teams to build new systems for Policy Analysis. She has participated in the Peruvian Tax Reform implementation of the 1990's as well as the Social Security Reform implementation which allowed both institutions to improve their collection and services to their constituencies.

"Virtual Community in Health Care:  Prospects in Peru" is a capstone project undertaken by a team of Masters of Public Policy and Management students at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School.  TechBridgeWorld is launching a new public health initiative, learning what technologies could best assist with global public health challenges and exploring the creation of a virtual community for health care practitioners.  To assist with the initial stages of this new project, TechBridgeWorld has benefited from the policy expertise of this team of Master of Science in Public Policy and Management (MSPPM) students at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School.  This group project was conducted as a collaboration between TechBridgeWorld and the Heinz School in fulfillment of the MSPPM Systems Synthesis Project requirement. 

A virtual community would provide unique opportunities to share best practices among peers in the public health field.  This group project aims to design a template to determine the feasibility of a virtual community for health care practitioners in developing communities.  The planned feasibility template will be composed of two parts:  the social network among potential participants and the IT-readiness of the community. 

As a case study, the students are exploring the feasibility of a virtual community composed of health professionals in Peru.  Their study focuses on reproductive health professionals including doctors, nurses and midwives as potential participants in this virtual community.  This project is being conducted with the assistance of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Peru's Department of Health.