History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology in Colombiaprofessors and residents; at the suggestion of Luis Fernando Palma the Service wastransferred to the Victory and Carlos Lleras hospitals; in late 2002, it also carried out activitiesat the St. Rose of Lima Clinic. In 2003, work was begun at the Samaritan Hospital.The Service has been a bulwark of academic and research work and many of itsgraduates teach at diverse institutions.Dermatology Service of the University of Antioquia, MedellínThe chair of Dermatology and Syphilography was launched in 1920 with GustavoUribe Escobar, who held the position for approximately 20 years and had a disciple inJosé Posada Trujillo, who succeeded him in the chair (1936-1960) and made major contributionsto the study of sporotrichosis, having Carlos Enrique Tobón as his great collaborator.In the 1950s, the door was opened to U.S. medicine, the teaching of thebasic sciences was introduced and technological development brought in. GonzaloCalle Vélez returned from Michigan in 1955, bringing the first fungus collectionand launching research into that area. Returning in 1959 was Alonso CortésCortés, a privileged person as regards intellect and heart, a consummate teacher,whose lessons of semiotics had his students spellbound; his unquenchable thirstfor knowledge kept his learning unscathed. With them, the specialized dermatologicalstudy program was launched in 1959, receiving governmental approval in1963. Prof. Cortés was succeeded in the lead by Juan Pedro Velásquez Berruecos,Diego Elías Jaramillo and Fernando Vallejo Cadavid (Figure 49). In 1959 a unionwas instituted between the Dermatology, Pathology and Mycology services, an importantrole being played in this by the first dermatopathologist, Mario RobledoVillegas, who lacked pride or conceit over his incomparable knowledge and whofacilitated the study of mycoses. Mycological research was reinforced in a fundamentalmanner in the 1960s with the outstanding mycologist and researcher ÁngelaRestrepo Moreno. Her contributions to the knowledge of that science,particularly paracoccidiodomycosis, are incalculable; her probing spirit has ledher, up to the present, to carry out the most complex and specialized research atthe national and international levels. In 1969 Gonzalo Calle, along with MyriamMesa de Sanclemente and Stella Prada de Castañeda, brilliant and eager, introducedimmunofluorescence into the country. In 1975 the “Gustavo Uribe Escobar”dermatopathology laboratory was founded, led by the eminent dermatopathologistand teacher Walter León Hernández.The School has graduated 63 dermatologists. The first were Laureano Guerrero,Enrique Saldarriaga Arango, Mario Henao, Heriberto Gómez, Víctor Cárdenas,Fabio Rivera, Fernando García, Juan Pedro Velásquez, Jorge Mesa and FlavioGómez Vargas — upright, strict in his teaching and full of cordiality, one of themost outstanding pedagogues until his retirement. The country’s first female dermatologist,Myriam Mesa de Sanclemente (Figure 50), graduated in 1971. Morethat half of the School’s graduates have had a teaching career and several havealso stood out in public life as senators, governors, mayors, university presidents,ambassadors and ministers. The School has adapted to modern scientific development,consolidating research, and has always maintained the goal of searchingfor academic excellence and articulating it with the area’s and the country’s development.Figure 49.Fernando VallejoFigure 50. MyriamMesaFigure 51.Heriberto GómezDermatology service of the University of Caldas, ManizalesThe School was founded in 1965 at the University Hospital of Caldas by HeribertoGómez Sierra (Figure 51), a dermatologist of the University of Antioquia, onhis return from Michigan, where the studied immunofluorescence. The first graduate,in 1968, was Jairo Mesa Cock, an extraordinary teacher for many decades,139