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One of the main achievements of my career is having been a permanent promoter of regional approaches. That is, being aware of the need of having strong parts, or regions, that in turn strengthen the whole.

Destiny led me to develop my professional activity in a regional scenario: the Colombian Caribbean. We created Caribbean Rheumatologists through an update course for rheu-matologists and other physicians interested in the specialty, after noting the demand for continued education in our region as well as the necessity of our an appropriate forum of our own to discuss ideas, papers and innovation, in addition to keeping our medical body up to date. Those were the times when we would be called from Bogota to act as moderators of a set agenda.

Since Caribbean Rheumatologists we have organized an annual course that this year will reach its 21st edition, two national conferences, one Central-American, Caribbean and Andean conference, and several “pre-Carnival” international conferences held in Barranquilla, all of which were successful although they initially seemed acts of mad-ness. The latest adventure was the 1st PANLAR Rheumatology Review Course, which we organized based on the experience and infrastructure acquired through all these years and ended with resounding success, placing Barranquilla as a regional capital in the Pan-American rheumatology map. For us, Caribbean Colombians, the struggle to

Razones para asistir a cursos PANLAR

“Nothing is more global than what is local”Gabriel García Márquez

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earn respect and regard for our identity has never been a minor topic. We had to earn a Literature Nobel Prize and re-ceive it wearing a traditional liqui-liqui while playing vallenatos in cold Stoc-kholm for our country to understand that being different does not make us better or worse, but is merely an ex-pression of our cultural mix, as good and important as any other.

Regional eventsThis is the reason why we’ve never doubted to support and promote regio-nal events under the umbrella of PAN-

LAR. Events such as the first PANLAR-ACCAR need to be continued. The Central-Ame-rican, Caribbean and Andean Association (formerly “ACCA”, today “ACCAR”) covers two PANLAR regions and 13 out of 21 countries belonging to PANLAR (the Central-American and Bolivarian region). ACCAR grew as a reaction to traditional centralism extending from political territorial organization to all areas, including medicine, which we surely inherited from our colonial past.

For its founders, ACCA provided momentum for a less polarized PANLAR; one that was less dependent on the culture of centralism established by its founders at the north and south extremes of our continent. Although it may be seen as a logical part of growing and evolving as an organization, it was not exempt of conflicts and precise definitions.

ACCAR’s regional impulse was politically noticeable since its foundation, with Dr. Abra-ham García Kutzbach, from Guatemala, and Dr. Juan Angulo Solimano, from Peru, ha-ving terms as presidents of PANLAR. Organizationally, the Pan-American conferences in Aruba (initially assigned to Venezuela but moved to Aruba due to political matters), Lima, Guatemala, Santo Domingo and Panama have all been highly successful, a matter of note since until 2002 only one Pan-American conference had been held in the region, specifically in Colombia. Academic aspects such as attendance to events, participation in groups and networks have all improved, and specialized journals are regularly publi-shed, as is the case in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru, reflecting the growth and maturity in the scientific communities in the region, the youngest ones to join PANLAR. However, there are still unfinished tasks. In a new phase marked by the We are all PANLAR move-ment there would be no justification for a regional or identity clash.

“The purpose of regional courses is to provide a local outlook on global knowledge. We may not aspire to real high-impact Pan-American rheumatology without our own data. What makes us unique is found in the regions, as confirmed by the experiences of different study groups.”

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The purpose of regional coursesThe purpose of regional cour-ses is to provide a local outlook on global knowledge. We may not aspire to real high-impact Pan-American rheumatology wi-thout our own data. What makes us unique is found in the regions, as confirmed by the experiences of different study groups. Data may be found from national con-ferences and regional events held throughout the continent in each of the stages: from meetings and conferences in the Rio de la Pla-ta, through those of Mercosur and Mexican-Canadian meetings, to the events organized by ACCAR, upheld by its managers and su-

pported by time and demands.

I believe we should take advantage of said meetings to forge an identity, establish co-llaborative work networks, present our experiences, develop regional investigation, help create renewing leadership, innovate and integrate in our diversity and cultural wealth. By knowing the needs for education in our region, the experiences poured in documents and our own data, the proper valuation of our expertise will allow the rest of the world to know, appreciate and wish to know us.

We can continue growing and building a strong PANLAR from a regional perspective, as an organization with its own identity and in charge of its future, striving always for excellence in our specialty.

Our beloved Gabo once said, “nothing is more global than what is local”, referring to the appreciation of our essence. The Nobel-Prize winner also said that being able to share our essence would make us universal. Our courses shall aid us in this purpose. So be it.

Carlo Vinicio Caballero Uribe MD Phd ©

President 2016-18