Two Ecuadorian doctors stand out in international scientific societies

This year, an Ecuadorian doctor became president of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). It is Guillermo E. Umpiérrez, a certified specialist in diabetes care and education, and professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology at Grady Memorial, the public hospital in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, and the fifth largest in the United States. There he is also director of the diabetes and endocrinology section.

Graduated in medicine from the University of Guayaquil, did his internal medicine and endocrinology training at Emory University, and his professional relationship with that institution is almost four decades. “I am a professor and director of the endocrinology program of our section,” he sums up. He divides his time between caring for patients, research, and educating graduate students and residents.

“We have a very large research program, with 18 international and American doctors, and 6 young professors who work with me. At Emory we have 56,000 patients with diabetes, and at the community hospital (Grady), 18,000 more”.

Umpiérrez is also engaged in the drafting of diabetes treatment guidelines, both with the ADA and with the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. “I have been fortunate to be elected president of this, the largest diabetes association in the world, with more than 200,000 members, and the most important. It is an honor, I am the first Latin American to have that distinction”.

The ADA is well known for its guidelines for managing the diabetic patient who is hospitalized, the person returning home, and the person residing in a long-term care home. “We have also done research at the level of minority populations.” One of the results at Emory is the Latino Diabetes Education Program, in Spanish and free.

“We have seen patients all over Georgia and the southeastern United States; we develop apps to teach them. We did it in person, but due to COVID-19 the last year has been virtual ”. Latino minorities have more cases of diabetes (1.5 times more likely to develop it than other groups, due to genetic and cultural reasons) and less access to health education and medical care. “Being overweight is very common.” Umpiérrez and his team teach these populations what diabetes is, how to eat, how to control the disease, and follow them through the clinics to prevent complications.

As part of that mission, Dr. Umpiérrez visits Ecuador several times a year to give talks and establish ties of friendship and knowledge, and also to see his family. “I think Ecuador’s doctors are very well trained, especially endocrinologists, have a very high level, but many limitations in their daily work ”, such as the lack of state-of-the-art drugs. “I hope that in the future these will be of massive use for patients of all levels.”

Giving relevance to Ecuador in Latin American nephrology

The nephrologist Fabian Ortiz Herbener was elected this year vice president of the Latin American Society of Nephrology and Hypertension (Slanh), created to unify all regional societies. “The purpose is to represent us before the International Society of Nephrology”, explains the doctor, “and to offer continuous training for the staff of this branch throughout Latin America”, as well as to disseminate scientific information through its official journal.

In 2015, when Ortiz served as president of the Ecuadorian Society of Nephrology, it began to collaborate with Slanh and contribute data. A turning point, recalls the specialist, was the earthquake in Manabí, in 2016. “I moved to coordinate dialysis and medication needs for transplant patients who lived in places that had been inaccessible. I received help from Latin American and international society. Although it was very bad, the problem lessened ”.

In the last five years, the nephrologist considers, Ecuador has shown that it has enough professionals and information to form part of the Slanh board of directors, and thus the candidacy for the vice presidency was proposed by the Andean area (Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador). The elected president is the Colombian Jorge Eduardo Rico Fontalvo. “At last Ecuador is on the board, a milestone that allows other compatriots to arrive, and make the country emerge in the regional nephrological field.”

Why an Ultrasound Can Save Your Life: Chronicle of a Kidney Cancer Patient

The members of the Slanh meet every two years in a congress of which Guayaquil will host in 2025. “The same day we obtained the presidency, he proposed to the city as headquarters, and he won”, in a process carried out by the Ecuadorian Society of Nephrology, in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Guayaquil.

“It is an event to which doctors from all over the world will come, the areas of the Convention Center have already been seen so that within four years it will be a success”. Ecuador and the Andean region are at the right time to demonstrate their capacity, considers Ortiz, who He was president of the Ecuadorian Society of Nephrology between 2015 and 2017. The current president is the Manabi doctor Vanessa Villavicencio.

One of the issues in which Ecuador needs to catch up, observes the nephrologist, is in the processing and publication of health data. “They should be available to all Ecuadorians. The United States has a very large database (USRDS Annual Data Report), which anyone can access. We work with it in many countries, trying to extrapolate the information to our population ”.

Another of his concerns is to improve the quality and life expectancy of patients with kidney disease. In Ecuador, according to a recent study, there is a seven-year delay between the approval of a new drug and its application in the country. “I am very committed to transferring nephrology culture to primary care physicians, so they can identify patients with kidney disease; if I identify them early, I can control them and they may never go to dialysis. “

Still more can be done. 80% of dialysis patients have diabetes or hypertension (or both). “At least a third of the population of Ecuador could have a degree of hypertension; millions of people ”, and many of them don’t know it. “We need a better gastronomic culture. Finland, in primary education, teaches its young people how they should eat and why they should. Here (in Ecuador) we are oriented to heal. Other countries are a little better than us, focused on prevention ”. But the next step, with which the doctor dreams, is the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits, which begins in childhood. (I)