Alvaro Salas, MD, is former president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), the most important public healthcare provider in Costa Rica, and currently, a member of its Board of Directors. He is a medical surgeon who graduated from the University of Costa Rica, with a major in Health Services Administration. He was the director of clinics and hospitals of the CCSS. He has a postgraduate degree in Health Services Administration and Planning from the University of Leeds, England, as well as a master’s in public administration, with emphasis on health economics, from the Kennedy School at Harvard University.
Dr. Salas is an expert in primary healthcare and management of public health services, with quality and universal coverage. In 1994, he was appointed Executive President of the CCSS. He was a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization PAHO / WHO of the World Bank in the reform of health services of the 1990s. Since 2012, he actively participates in the organization of the Central American Healthcare Initiative, CAHI. He is currently a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Costa Rica and Director of the Strategic Center for Information on Health and Social Security, CENDEISSS, of the CCSS.