History of Latin American Dermatology

PAULO R. CUNHADuring the third year of the study program, having to do work on pharmaco-cosmetics,we found someone who would later be a model and source of professional pridefor us, Prof. Rubem David Azulay. Under his happy, useful and competent guidance,which responded to our scientific needs, we would work twenty more years. Our servicetook up half a floor of the old Valonguinho Polyclinic, and at first, they moved usto a three-square-meter space at the Antônio Pedro Hospital... We retain many memoriesof the Polyclinic; it was a simple and peaceful environment where we learnedto teach and to do research. From there, we left for the Fiocruz, where we researchedessential aspects of elastic fiber on a six-year-old patient with the tissues ofa sixty-year-old. We already belonged to the faculty of the course; as was customaryat the time, we worked for the pleasure of learning, with no pay, but honored by whatwe were doing. I think what is lacking at present in our country is recognizing peoplefor the work they are carrying out. Those who have that recognition know howmuch they are capable of doing to overcome difficulties. From the Dermatology Serviceof the Antônio Pedro Hospital came the initiative for the unification of dermatologicalnomenclature, taking Prof. Francisco Eduardo Rabello’s work as the basis. Itwas Prof. Antônio Pedro de Andrade Gaspar, in collaboration with Prof. Neyde KalilGaspar, who gathered and identified the different and numerous synonyms that madeunderstanding in Dermatology difficult. There were around 10,000 terms. These authorsgrouped 7,000 terms in the Dermatological Roster, marking the nomenclaturesuggested by Prof. Rabello. This book represented a fundamental milestone forBrazilian Dermatology, and is used in all the universities and services of the country.Profs. Antônio Pedro and Neyde also offered another five therapeutic updates bookswithin the specialized field, collecting the terms coded by the World Health Organizationin the ICD, in order to facilitate their use in the country. They also guidedtwenty-eight scientific research undertakings that were utilized, defended and approvedtheses at the Master’s and PhD levels 2 .Currently, the Dermatology Service remains as host of the Fluminense Federal Universityundergraduate and graduate teaching activities. For this reason, it is also linkedto the Clinical Medicine Department, formed by 122 professors. The Service is made upof thirteen professors and two doctors responsible for undergraduate course activities,including theoretical and practical aspects, hospitalization, medical internships, specializationand treatment activities. Activities in the research area are channeled throughScientific Initiation projects, coordinated by Profs. Neyde Kalil Gaspar and Jane MarcyNeffá Pinto. Since 1995, Dr. Neyde Kalil Gaspar holds the post of full professor of Dermatology.The administrative part of the service, as well as the coordination of the coursehave, since 2001, once again been fulfilled annually by the different professors, Prof.Jane Marcy Neffá Pinto having been elected for the current administration.The other services certified in Rio de Janeiro are: Holy House of Mercy (Head of Service,Rubem David Azulay), Dermatology and Syphilography Service of the HSE (Head ofService, Márcio Rutowitsch), Pedro Ernesto University Hospital (Head of Service, IsabelSucci), Rio de Janeiro Federal University (Head of Service, Márcia Ramos e Silva), LagoaHospital-Carlos Chagas Graduate Medical Institute (Head of Service, Andrea Gurfinkel),Rio de Janeiro General Polyclinic (Head of Service, Marcius Peryassú), Bonsucesso GeneralHospital (Head of Service, José Anselmo Lofêgo Filho) and the Marcílio Días NavalHospital (Head of Service, Cláudio Lerer).SÃO PAULO DERMATOLOGYSão Paulo Dermatology had its beginnings on May 3, 1907, with the creation in thecapital’s Holy House of Mercy of a Skin Diseases Service under the management ofAdolpho Lindemberg, one of the pioneers of the specialized field in the State, in the countryand at the BSD.98