QEEG in a public health system.

For the past decade the Cuban Neuroscience Center has organized on behalf of the Ministry of Public Health of the Republic, a nationwide Program for the introduction of quantitative EEG (qEEG). This Program has involved a) development of standardized equipment for "paperless" EEG, qEEG and brain topography; b) establishment of a network of 21 laboratories of clinical neurophysiology; c) creation of the specialty of clinical neurophysiology which trains physicians from all provinces in both traditional and quantitative electrophysiological methods; d) introduction of standardized protocols for the collection of clinical and electrophysiological information; e) organization of a national normative and neuropsychiatric database; f) establishment of normative regression equations. Among the special issues discussed are: 1) relationship between traditional and quantitative methods; 2) evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology introduced; 3) use of qEEG in the early detection of brain dysfunction.