Over 300 people attended the 2nd International Telemedicine Symposium which featured 10 international panelists from Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Spain together as well as six further speakers from Colombia, and was held on the 3rd and 4th of November 2011 at the Universidad de Caldas.
The main objective of the encounter was to promote network projects on subjects related to long distance medicine.
“Two very important events took place during the symposium: the signature of a cooperation agreement between telehealth groups at the Federal University of Mina Gerais (Brazil) and the Universidad de Caldas, and the launch of the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Telemedicine,” said Fernando Álvarez, Director of the University’s Telehealth group.
The event was organized by Ricardo Gómez Giraldo, the Rector of the Universidad de Caldas in association with Dolly Magnolia González Hoyos, Decan of the Institution’s Faculty of Health and José Esteban García, Director of Science Studies at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in Spain.
“We heard about the most promising experiences throughout the world, and shared our own example as one of the best, learning a lot and maintaining the Telehealth group’s status as a viable alternative in the 21st Century,” said Gómez Giraldo.
Also participating were Fernando Álvarez, Director of the Telehealth group at the Universidad de Caldas; Andrés Fernández from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) who is also the Director of the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Telemedicine at the UOC.
The participants’ conclusions
Ricardo Gómez Giraldo, Rector of the Universidad de Caldas: “This event demonstrates the maturity of the Telehealth group and the whole telemedicine service offered by the U. de Caldas, Colombia’s confidence in the process is a compliment to all the professors and staff working in the program and an incentive towards further growth.”
Fernando Álvarez, Director of the Telehealth Group at the Universidad de Caldas: “The group from the Federal University of Mina Gerais has perhaps the most telehealth experience in the world, providing coverage to 600 municipalities in Brazil.”
Luiz Ary Messina, National Coordinator of the University Telemedicine Network of Brazil (Rute): “Colombia is ready, and its universities have made a lot of progress in developing a national telehealth program to provide care for the populations of remote areas, guaranteeing that healthcare teams have ongoing training and are continuously working to improve.”
José Esteban García, Director of Health Science Studies at UOC: “The OUC was the first completely online university. The initiative was driven by the university itself but we are an open institution working in 67 countries with 62 thousand students. No university should accept any limits to the furthering of knowledge and it is an honor to be part of this group.”
Andrés Fernández, from Cepal: “One of the most important tasks was to gather specialists from many different areas to contribute to the decision making on the forming of public policies, as the inequities in Latin America, especially in the field of healthcare, are very great.”
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