Dr. Bernal is currently Professor of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Rosario University in Bogotá, and representative of the National Intersectoral Commission of Human Resources for Health before the National Intersectoral Commission of Quality Assurance of Health Academic Programs in Colombia.
He is a Public Health and Family Physician with more than 20 years of clinical and managerial experience mainly in primary health care (PHC) services in Colombia, particularly serving marginalized communities, internally displaced persons, and patients with non-communicable chronic diseases. He has also been involved in health promotion and community building programs with vulnerable, aboriginal, and migrant populations in Sydney (Australia) and Bogotá for several years.
His expertise extends to the field of immunizations, considering his previous work as Regional Director of Clinical Sciences at Sanofi Pasteur for several years, leading clinical teams and conducting epidemiological and clinical studies for the development of new candidate vaccines to prevent and control infections such as Dengue, Zika, C. difficile and Genital Herpes, in Colombia, Peru, Brazil and the United States of America, as well as advocating in favor of immunizations of public health interest in the same countries.
He worked at the Colombian MoH as National Director of Human Resources for Health in 2019 and 2020, where he contributed to policy design and the deployment of strategies to strengthening PHC and the overall health care system, as well as the development of human resources for health in the country. He was part of the National Public Health Strategic Committee that prepared and implemented the response of the Colombian health sector to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the MoH focal point, he joined the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) in 2019, and in the last years he has been consultant for the World Bank in Primary Health Care topics in Colombia, El Salvador and Ghana, and consultant for the Results for Development Institute as expert technical facilitator of a PHCPI international community of practice with the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage. He has also been consultant for PAHO and USAID to strengthening PHC and Human Resources for Health in Colombia.
Furthermore, he has held various academic positions in different universities in Colombia, accumulating 17 years of teaching experience at several schools of medicine and health sciences in undergraduate and graduate programs, regarding PHC and other public health topics. Several papers have been published related to his work experience.