History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in ColombiaMariano López and Manuel Forero at the Pediatric Hospital of Mercy, Enrique SuárezPeláez and Jaime Soto Mancipe at the Colsubsidy Children’s Hospital, and Antonio BarreraArenales at the Lorencita Villegas de Santos Children’s University Hospital. InMedellín, Evelyne Halpert Ziskiend (Figure 25), a dermatologist of the University of Antioquiaand Colombia’s first children’s dermatologist, a graduate of the National Instituteof Pediatrics in Mexico in 1981, who created the service at the St. Vincent de Paul UniversityHospital, later headed by Amparo Ochoa, Martha Sierra and Gabriel Ceballos. InCali, Guillermo González Rodríguez, Rafael Isaza Zapata and Jairo Victoria Chaparro,and in Manizales, Josefina Danies at the Children’s Hospital. In Cali, International Seminarson Pediatric Dermatology were launched; the first in 1989 was coordinated byGuillermo González and Rafael Isaza.In 1992, at the close of the Nineteenth Colombian Congress of Dermatology in San Andrés,under the presidency of Flavio Gómez Vargas, a symposium was held on “TheTeaching of Dermatology in Colombia,” during which Antonio Barrera said, “The unexpectedscope and complexity of Dermatology, the diversity of pathological circumstances,are reasons that compel us to consider the urgent priority of increasing, expanding anddeepening study and research in this specialized field in its diverse areas, without promotinga useless fragmentation and without proposing anything new... The convenienceof creating and promoting subspecialized programs and services in some of the fields ofDermatology are tasks for a near future [as are] considerations on pediatric Dermatology,dermatopathology, dermatological surgery, oncological Dermatology, among others...as subspecialized programs with the possibility of being carried out at some of thecountry’s schools of Dermatology.”In 1992, in Bogotá, Antonio Barrera, Josefina Danies, Manuel Forero, GuillermoGonzález, Evelyne Halpert, Mariano López, Amparo Ochoa, Enrique Suárez Peláez,Jaime Soto and Jairo Victoria founded the Association of Pediatric Dermatology, choosingDr. Suárez as its first president and Dr. Barrera as secretary. The subfield continuesto grow and expand in the diverse services with the arrival of new specialists.Figure 25. EvelyneHalpertHISTORY OF CRYOSURGERYCOLLABORATOR: Carlos Horacio González RojasGilberto Castro Ron, President of the American College of Cryosurgery, started acryosurgery course for dermatologists at the Luis Razetti Institute of Oncology in Caracas,which Carlos Horacio González Rojas and Sergio Cáceres Orozco participated in1988, launching modern cryosurgery in Colombia. Dr. González founded the CryosurgeryUnit in the city of Armenia, dedicated to the teaching and practice of the technique, treatingindigent patients for free. The dermatologists Luis Hernando Moreno, Ángela SeidelArango, Rafael Isaza and Danilo Álvarez Villegas, and the maxillofacial surgeon CarlosEnrique Mora, studied under his guidance. Later they would be joined by the dermatologistsMaría Bernarda Gáfaro Barrera, Yamil Alberto Duque Ossman, Joaquín EliécerBerrio Muñoz and Gema Esther Revelo Hernández and the dentists Diego Arango andJulio César Torres. The team later brought in colleagues from other cities, like FabioLondoño, Juan Pedro Velásquez, Gustavo Acevedo Merino and María Mélida Durán, andreceived the cooperation of Gerzaín Rodríguez for the reading of biopsies. On December3, 1991, in Guadalajara, Mexico, during the CILAD Congress, the Ibero-American Associationof Cryosurgery was founded at the initiative of six dermatologists (Figure 26); Dr.Castro Ron was elected president, being succeeded by Dr. González, who at the secondmeeting of the Association in Cartagena (1999) (in which 270 national dermatologistsand 70 from abroad took part in) managed to give the technique a greater boost. Manyother outstanding colleagues have contributed to the history of the subfield, like VirginiaPalacios Bernal and Luis Fernando Balcázar Romero.129