Biographical notes on Professor Hernan Alessandri, M.D

• Published in: Revista medíca de Chile 2005-12, Vol.133 (12), p.1500
• Main Author: Goic, Alejandro
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Subjects: Chile; Education, Medical - history; History, 20th Century
• ISSN: 0034-9887

Hernán Alessandri, a renowned Chilean medical educator, was born in Santiago in 1900. He received his medical degree at the University of Chile in 1923. When in 1927 his father, then President of Chile, was sent into exile, he used the opportunity to deepen his medical knowledge in France and Germany. At the University of Chile, he became successively Professor of Clinical Medicine (1932), of Medical Semiology (1937), and Full Professor and Chair of Medicine (1944). At the Hospital del Salvador in Santiago, he organized a Clinical Department exemplary for its discipline, academic environment and dedication to patients and students. He was one of the prime movers for the reform of medical teaching in 1943, created medical residency programs for the training of specialists in 1952, served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1958 to 1962, and was a founding member of the Chilean Academy of Medicine (1964). He was the first Latin American to be named Honorary Member of the American College of Physicians (1968) and became Emeritus Professor of the University of Chile in 1973. He died in his hometown in 1982. His disciples and friends established in his honor a social and teaching foundation which they named after him. His clinical and diagnostic skills, along with his outstanding intelligence, made him the most brilliant clinician of his time and an exceptional medical educator who has inspired several generations of physicians.