This year was marked by innovation, the Social Responsibility program and participation in sporting events.
2022 -in which we celebrate eight years of life- has passed, once once more, in a pandemic; however, it has not been an impediment to adding new advances and achieving the development that allows us to deliver excellent care to our patients and their families. Here, we show you some of the milestones that marked this year in our Clinic.
Inauguration of the Center for Respiratory Diseases and Allergies
In Chile, respiratory diseases are one of the main reasons for medical consultation and are also among the leading causes of death. In response to this reality, in 2022 we inaugurated the Center for Respiratory Diseases and Allergies, to provide solutions for those who suffer from asthma, allergic rhinitis, and lung cancer, among other pathologies. Not only does it have a multidisciplinary medical team, but it also has a lung function laboratory and an allergy laboratory, along with procedures such as fiberoptic bronchoscopy. In addition, it has related programs for Allergies, Pre-Lung, Severe Bronchial Asthma, Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Consolidation of the Social Responsibility Program
This initiative is part of one of the central pillars of our Clinic, which seeks to provide free care to low-income patients. This program has made it possible to perform around 300 surgeries annually, completing more than 1,100 to date.
To carry out this program, agreements have been signed with some hospitals in Santiago and regions, so that they are the ones who select the patients, prioritizing surgeries that are difficult to access in the public system and highly complex, whose impact on the quality of life is noun, such as trauma, cardiac and thoracic. Maternal-fetal or intrauterine surgeries have also been privileged.
Along the same lines, since 2021, the parking charge is used for this same purpose.
Medical support at sporting events
During 2022, our Sports Medicine team accompanied and supported athletes from Team Chile and other sports institutions in important national and international events, such as the qualification of the handball team in Brazil to the World Cup of the discipline; Davis Cup in Viña del Mar and Lima; national enduro montenbaik championship in La Parva; South American Youth Games in Rosario, Argentina; XIX Bolivarian Games of Valledupar, Colombia; XI World Games in the United States; classification of the Chilean rugby team in the United States to the World Cup of this discipline; among others.
We also support amateur sports, such as those that take place in schools and sports clubs.
Unpublished surgeries in our Clinic
In April, the first surgery was performed on a patient who had been suffering from refractory epilepsy for years, convulsing despite treatment. It is a procedure that, in many cases, can be curative and that consists of removing the specific area of the brain where epileptic seizures are generated. It is a complex procedure that requires a highly trained medical and technical team.
In June, atrial septal defect closure was performed on a 28-year-old woman with congenital pathology. In this case, and using the same principles as in traditional cardiac surgery, minimally invasive surgery with peripheral cardiopulmonary bypass was performed through a 4-cm minithoracotomy, which made it possible to repair the atrial septal defect. This approach implies important benefits for patients, such as fewer days of hospitalization, a faster return to the usual routine, and the cosmetic benefits that come with being less invasive.
Meanwhile, in November, brain bypass surgery was performed for the first time at our Clinic on a pediatric patient who has moyamoya disease, which reduces blood flow to the brain. This complex procedure was carried out by a multidisciplinary team and lasted 24 hours.
IMPACT: United for development and innovation in medical diagnostics and advanced therapies
IMPACT is the Center for Interventional Medicine for Advanced Cellular Therapy of UANDES and corresponds to a public-private research platform, financed by the National Agency for Research and Development ANID, and led by the University together with other study houses. Its main objective is to develop innovative technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of complex diseases through personalized therapies at affordable costs.
IMPACT is characterized by being a translational research platform, seeking the clinical application of the results obtained in basic research. To this end, more than 45 projects are expected to be carried out, most of which will be carried out at the Clinic. Several have even started this 2022, in collaboration with other local and international centers and researchers. These are projects in gynecology and obstetrics, traumatology, cancer immunotherapy and mental health, among others.
Nursing Model was published in an international journal
In 2018, the Patient Care and Service Directorate of our Clinic, together with the UANDES Faculty of Nursing and Obstetrics, formed a working group with the aim of creating a UANDES Nursing model itselfwhich was published this year in the magazine Nursing Open edited by Wiley, with a high impact factor. Our Nursing Model is the first professional nursing practice model in our country.
UANDES Clinic has the lowest rate of caesarean sections in the Metropolitan Region during 2022
The Seremi de Salud de la Región Metropolitana carried out the first Report on Monitoring and Surveillance of Cesarean Sections, in which our Clinic recorded 30.3% cesarean sections within the total number of births, a much lower rate than other private and public health centers. In recent years, Chile has presented a national average of more than 40%, a reality that places us among the countries with the highest rates of cesarean sections in the OECD.
Although there are cases where a cesarean section is indicated, especially in multiple pregnancies or where the well-being of the child or the mother is compromised, there are others in which this surgical technique is not necessary. For this reason, the importance of promoting normal childbirth, which has multiple advantages, such as faster recovery, less postoperative pain and bleeding; lower risk of infections; reduce the risk of suffering fetal injuries from the surgical procedure and, in addition, a lower cost.
