History of Latin American Dermatology

PAULO R. CUNHADuring his administration, associate professor João Gontijo Assunção became unchairedfaculty member in March 1978, with his thesis “Pemphigus Foliaceous in Infancy.Some Epidemiological and Clinical Aspects,” and held the Dermatology Servicehead office during the period between 1982 and 1986.Tancredo Furtado was one of the creators of the Dermatology Triangular Meeting,President of the Minas Gerais Section of the BSD and President of the National BSD in1973; emeritus member of the MiNeyra Medical Academy, honorary member of the NationalAcademy of Medicine and corresponding or honorary member of various foreignDermatology societies.All this dazzling professional and university career was based on a solid humanisticeducation and on a painstaking medical career (he was one of the two best students ofhis 1946 class) with graduate studies in the United States: internships and courses at theuniversities of Kansas City, Chicago, New York, Washington and Los Angeles.Professor Orcanda Andrade Patrus (1941), born in Juiz de Fora, who fulfilled the roleof assistant professor since the period of Prof. Oswaldo Costa, completed her PhD, and,in 1980, defended the thesis “Antigens of Histocompatibility, Immunocomplexes andComplement in Pemphigus Foliaceous,” with which she became associate professor. In1991, she was appointed Full Professor through public competition and headed the Dermatologyservice with great vision, competence and selflessness, introducing improvements,implementing computerization, and maintaining the team’s high quality of workand the acknowledged team-learning model.After her retirement, the leadership of the service was taken over by associate professorDr. Antonio Carlos Martins Guedes, who carried out a very good administration,reforming and modifying the Dermatology Annex of the Hospital das Clínicas, with nodetriment to his previous, competent and dedicated responsibility in the Histopathologysection.At the end of his mandate, he was replaced by associate professor Bernardo Gontijo,previously Head of the Graduate Program in Dermatology and President of the MinasGerais section. In 2000-2001, he headed the (national) BSD with courage, dedication,selflessness and competence.Other certified services in Minas are Juiz de Fora’s Federal University (the head ofwhich is Prof. Aloísio Gamonal) and Uberlândia’s Federal University (Head of Service: Dr.Sônia Antunes de Oliveira).Espírito SantoThe Dermatology Service of the Cassiano Antônio Moraes Hospital, of the Hospital dasClínicas of the Medical School of Espírito Santo’s Federal University, could have been certifiedmuch earlier by the BSD, but the unit itself wanted to postpone its certification: “Itwas necessary for the Service to be convinced that its approval would arrive with the topgrade, as should be the case with everything related to medical practice” 2 .The BSD journal points out: “Some aspects stand out at that Service: the simplicityand harmony in everything and among everyone, the informality in people’s relationshipsand in the execution of tasks; the priesthood-like spirit translated into projects and intothe capacity to be daring. Professors Carlos Cley Coelho and Délio Del Maestre (the latter,Head of the Service) constitute the two-man cohesive pedagogical team, within a programselected in common” 2 .Even though the size of the Service is not very large, all seven rooms impress by theirluminosity, which is also the case in the meeting room and in another room devoted tominor surgery, as well as in the warehouse. Certified in 1999 — at the Deliberative Councilmeeting held during the Fifty-Fourth Brazilian Congress of Dermatology in Belo Horizonte— the medical service, certified with top grades, is the state referral center forhanseniasis, non-pulmonary tuberculosis and leishmaniasis, and treats an average of94