CONCEPTOS Successes and Challenges in Chile

- Hi, good morning. My name is Pablo Aguilera. I'm an emergency physician in Chile. And I'm not going to talk to you about the current state of emergency medicine in our country, but as Janaia mentioned, I will speak about Conceptos, which is one of the main conferences that we've done in Chile. And today it's well known throughout the region. So, give me the next slide. So, what is Conceptos? Conceptos is is a nonprofit conference with ambition to provide quality education and training to ED physicians in Chile and the rest of South America. Next slide, please. So that's the what. It was born around 2012 with the idea to show people what it was emergency medicine. The specialty in Chile was beginning to grow during that period, but people kept on asking us, we were one of the first ones that were trained in emergency medicine. They kept on asking us, "What is emergency medicine? What's the core content? What's the aim of the specialty?" So there was a huge need for showing people what the specialty was and to have applicants at the end. So at the beginning we did that. Please give me the next slide. At the beginning, as I mentioned, was how to make the specialty survive. That was the main mission and the aim to develop this conference. So we thought that we should make a statement on how are we different from other specialties, give out our strengths, show them, show the med students what the idea was on this specialty and how we, since the beginning, we've moved from a very basic conference to an international conference as that's what I want to show you in a few minutes. Please go ahead. So, our university, I'm based at the Catholic University in Chile, Pontificia Universidad Catolica. It was created or was founded in 1880 and the med school, 1930. So we've been for a long time. Give me the next one. Our training program is based over there in Chile. Chile right now, the next please, it's in South America for the ones that don't know. It's a long country with around 20 million people. At the beginning, when our training program was born, there was around three training programs, and nowadays we have around 15 that are going on. And Conceptos has been part of that growth. The next slide please. So, at the beginning, as I mentioned, 2010 to 12, there weren't many EM-trained physicians, and people were not applying to the specialty. So there was a need, a huge need to show people, show our colleagues what it was, emergency medicine, or what is emergency medicine and the advantages on going to the residency. Go ahead, please. So we made a statement. We made a purpose and a mission and vision about what we wanted it to show besides developing this idea. And we wanted to show content. This is based on medical education, on EM education, with a format which is very dynamic, a little bit electric and innovative, where we do some crazy things on stage, and people love that. Please go ahead. And how we did this? So at the beginning, the history of emerging medicine in Chile is really based on, it was supported by some US institutions that came here to help us. That was USC at the beginning, George Washington University, plus others that kept related with us for long, long time. Dr. Billy Mallon was one of the pioneers over there. He kept on coming on a yearly basis for many, many years. And they help us to develop the conference at the beginning. So he contact, and he did it as a bridge. He work as a bridge on bringing really good experts in emergency medicine at the beginning. So adding this whole mission and a purpose to a conference, we had really, really great speakers and Spanish speakers. So right now we're still bringing... we're still bringing good physicians from abroad, from South America, from Europe and from the US still and Canada and Australia. They'll be here, next, please. And another thing that is a good hallmark is that this conference is very inexpensive for the region. So it's affordable. So we have two of the line speakers around, and people can really come. And now it's online version. We have an online as well, it's been streamed. The next, please. And, as I mentioned, we, had a lot of really, really good speakers, well known, such as, you know, you saw them, Herbert, Billy Mallon, Joe Lex, and others. Please, go ahead. Ney Mall, lots of names, well known names back there. Go ahead please. And attendees from many, many countries. From, we have, we've had a lot of come people from, from England, from Brazil, from Australia, and many, many countries. Not only live, but also online. Give, go ahead. There's another minute, just put some on some plugs. And this was one of the versions we did on a, our national theater over the southern attendees was huge and people love that. So these are the kind of innovation we've done with medicine and it kept on showing what we were or where we are in terms of our purpose and the aim of specialty, go ahead. And that's one of the secrets I think, having people interested. This conference was built with a mission that we don't want to make money out of it, but we to show, to teach we all need sustainability. And that's the challenge right now, and please go ahead. We're just finishing and the evolution has been quite good. At the beginning till before the pandemic, it was, you know, the, with an up slope and now we are rebuilding it and redesigning it to keep on going. Please go ahead. This is just Chile numbers and keeping this idea and this mission. We have some partners, societies, local societies, universities that have asked us they could use a name and the format and we landed their brand so they can use it. And now we have it in Spain for four years. Costa Rica for four years, Mexico, it's beginning this year. So it, the growth has been very, very important. And people like it. We work a lot with other societies right now, which make us really happy and proud. Go ahead. I'm just finishing right now. So this is the future. Go to other South American countries in order to help and to be part of the culture, to spread the word as I know. So emergency medicine can support EM physicians from other countries, but it has to be tailored with the local needs. So we, we align, the conference adapts a little bit on what's are the local needs on every country. And innovation, that's a clue. We need to change it, we need to prove it, we need to share ideas and yeah, that's more or less. Go ahead. The final idea and just to invite you to concept of Mexico, this is run by some, a group of emergency physicians from Mexico and with our support and with the brand. Go ahead. And this is the last one. And this is in Chile 2024. Thank you very much for having me.