History of Latin American Dermatology

RUBÉN GUARDA TATÍNmedical appointments for not strictly technical reasons. In this manner, the legitimizationof specialists hasn’t yet been completed in Chile and will not represent a truly efficientinstrument until all the national institutions agree on a sole process.■ The The teaching of of Dermatology in Chile in ChileIntroductionTeaching activities in relation to Dermatology were until 1966 limited only to givinginstruction in this discipline to undergraduate students at existing medical schools andto the teaching of some selected subjects related to social hygiene to students from otherschools. No trustworthy data (dates and circumstances) exist regarding the launching ofthe teaching of Dermatology as a separate discipline in undergraduate studies. In ChileDermatology has traditionally been viewed as a subordinate, less significant disciplinewithin the overall study syllabus. Even now students are only allocated two full-timeweeks for practical activities and theoretical classes, which is regarded as insufficient inview of the impact and prevalence of dermatoses in the daily practice of general practitionersand pediatricians.It lies beyond the aims of this summary to go into the life and contribution of the mostoutstanding professors in Chile (with some exceptions) as well as to mention all the dermatologistswho have worked at the services and chairs linked to undergraduate andgraduate teaching.Undergraduate teaching in SantiagoThe UCH was the pioneering and sole institution responsible for this teaching until1983. The beginnings of the incorporation of Dermatology to the study syllabus for medicalstudents at the UCH and their first professors are still uncertain. The first name forthe discipline was “Skin and Syphilography,” and the first professor was Mamerto Cádiz,an epidemiologist, but his title, place of work and personal references are unknown.Classes were originally held at the St. Louis Hospital until the creation of another chairat the St. Vincent de Paul Hospital. Luis Puyó Medina, who had studied in Paris, was —apparently — the person who formally set up the first chair, and who gave the teachingthe seal of French Dermatology, widely predominant in the countries of South Americain the first half of the twentieth century; however, we don’t have trustworthy data on Dr.Puyó’s workplace and period heading the chair. Furthermore, we are unsure when theranks of full professor and extraordinary professor of Dermatology were created.Although we know that for the most part of the first half of the twentieth century twoundergraduate chairs existed (St. Louis and St. Vincent de Paul hospitals) with their respectiveprofessors or physicians in charge of the chairs, we don’t know the relative importanceof these chairs in terms of students attracted, budgets and faculty; in 1938there coexisted a full professor (Luis Prunés Risetti) and an extraordinary professor(Roberto Jaramillo Bruce), both of them bulwarks of Chilean Dermatology and with aknown rivalry. These posts were apparently obtained by competition based on backgroundand master classes. At an indeterminate date it was established that the full professorhad to be at the St. Vincent de Paul Hospital, while the extraordinary professorscould be at either of the two hospitals.168