The origin of IECS can be traced back to the 1990s when a group of health professionals fostered the creation of the Masters in Clinical Effectiveness at the Medical School of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). This course, also informally known as “Clinical Effectiveness Program”, was created in 1999 and there are more than 400 graduates to date.

Professionals from different fields formed the faculty and, as they consolidated as a team, observed that developed countries conducted most health studies and applied their sanitation agendas in developing countries without taking into consideration their culture, society and context. They realized that it was necessary for health decision makers to have local scientific evidence.

This triggered the decision to form a non-profit organization dedicated to the education, research and technical cooperation in the development of clinical interventions, health programs and policies for Latin America and the Caribbean.

This institution was calledInstituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria (IECS)- Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy- and was founded in 2002. For more than a decade now IECS has been thinking globally but acting locally to contribute to the reformulation of a national and regional research agenda that reflects the needs of the region.