Visiting Rapa Nui in 2023, Dr. José Hono, head of the Dermatology program at the University of Valparaíso and head of the Dermatology Service at the Quillota Hospital, noticed the need to resolve the dermatological needs presented by a significant number of patients in this part of the oceanic territory.
Thus, he began a work plan with Ovahe Tepano, director of the Health Foundation for RapaNui, an alliance that allowed medical operations to begin with specialists in this area, managing to serve more than 500 patients and considerably reducing the number of people on the list. Standby.
In this way, in the first operation, 26 minor surgeries were carried out, 23 in the second and in the last one – carried out last May – more than twenty procedures were performed, exceeding seventy surgeries.
To date, important diagnoses have been detected, such as carcinomas and skin cancer, among others. A work that Dr. José Hono began on the island in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Valparaíso and the Chair of Dermatology. A work to which Dr. Andrés Casassas, professor of the Department of Dermatology of the university, has joined.
Likewise, remote consultations have been carried out, allowing photographs of the patients and their respective diagnoses to be sent for the correct treatment of diseases.
For Ovahe Tepano, pediatric surgeon and director of the Health Foundation for RapaNui, this joint work “will allow two to three annual operations in dermatology to be carried out, continuously attending to all dermatological needs, thus making it possible to monitor cases. Likewise, reduce patient waiting lists, avoid transfers to the mainland and make diagnoses on the island.”
New operation
On May 27, a third dermatological operation was carried out on the island and Dr. Diego Verdugo, a scholarship recipient from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Valparaíso, participated in it, who highlighted the importance of these interventions that allow, on the one hand, reduce waiting lists and educate on the prevention of future diseases.
“Each patient is a challenge for us, but we also have an academic challenge, which is very important in our training. What we are doing is part of an important program that allows us to care for patients in remote places and put into practice what we learn as a tool to help communities,” says Dr. Verdugo.
This last operation ended on May 31 and new medical care is expected to be provided in the months of July and December of this year.
“We are happy that with these operations the number of patients on the waiting list is decreasing, considering that a specialty like dermatology requires comprehensive care for both children and adults,” concludes Ovahe Tepano.
Hanga Roa, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Note and photos: Health Foundation for Rapa Nui
