Las Condes vol. 28 núm. 2

164

performance and efficiency of its health care system (3).

Causes of death in Chile are summarized in the WHO data

below (Figure 1).

Chilean medical education nationally is strong as well, with

several long standing competitive medical schools that

provide excellent foundational medical knowledge to their

graduates, who take a national medical examination upon

graduation. Residency training after medical school (usually

3 years in duration and often governmentally funded) is

available in internal medicine, general surgery, and many

other specialty areas. The larger Chilean universities are

capable academic institutions with research and publication

activities and academic promotion criteria, similar to those

in academic institutions in the United States and Europe.

In Santiago the two largest, oldest, medical institutions are

the University of Chile and PUC (the Catholic University),

and these were also among the first institutions to begin

training Emergency Physicians. The University of Chile

hosted the first Chilean Emergency Medicine (EM) training

program which started with four physicians in 1994, and

PUC began its program several years later.

In 2005, there were 18 million ED visits in Chile and thus

tremendous potential for EM specialty training to positively

impact the health of the Chilean population. The specialty

of EM was recognized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in

2013. Healthcare in Chile is considered to be a right, and

there is a patients’ bill of rights adopted nationally in 2012

(4). As of 1990, the need for trained Emergency Medicine

specialists to minimize disability adjusted life years (DALYs)

for non-communicable diseases and trauma in Chile was

evident. (Figure 2)

Chile is the most progressive country in South America in

(Taken from World Health Organization (WHO) Country Profile. Source:

)

FIGURE 1. REVEALS NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES ARE

THE MOST IMPORTANT CAUSES OF DEATHS IN CHILE

FIGURE 2. FOR YOUNGER PATIENTS, UNINTENTIONAL

INJURIES, SUICIDE, HOMICIDE AND CONFLICT ARE

IMPORTANT TRAUMA-RELATED CAUSES OF BOTH YLL,

YLD, AND DALYS IN CHILE

(Taken from World Health Organization (WHO) Country Profile. Source:

)

[REV. MED. CLIN. CONDES - 2017; 28(2) 163-169]