La Escuela Médica de Quito: origen y trayectoria de tres siglos

Abstract

Context: the Chair of Medicine or Medical School of Quito is the oldest in the country, and one of the first in Hispanic America.
Objective: to describe the Medical School of Quito, its origin and trajectory over three centuries.
Discussion: at the Audiencia of Quito, the noble city of the churches, the monumental work of the dawn of national medical education begins to be snooped. The convents open their doors to the emergence of spaces of letters, art and knowledge from Europe. The deplorable conditions of life of the population, together with the repeated epidemics, demanded of that phenomenal effort of the religious of Santo Domingo, who founded the first Chair of Medicine in 1693. The leading figure of Eugenio Espejo marks the awakening of humanism in the eighteenth century. His struggle in all orders vindicates marginalized social groups. His critical contribution to the system of university education, particularly saying that medicine means a new and anticipated vision of the
true way to implement the art of healing and teaching. This Chair of Medicine or Medical School of Quito is the oldest in the country, and one of the first in Hispanic America. The curriculum of the Chair of Medicine of Quito was establishe in three years with the subjects of Anatomy and Physiology (in charge of the professor of Prima), Pathology, Method and Therapeutics (under the charge of the professor of Vespers). The enlightened spirits, erected with American independence, initiate the national revival, promote science and combat the oppressive relaxation in which the Ecuadorian people were immerse and infuse an eagerness for illustration and progress that is manifested by the resurgence and creation of the teaching facilities and the formation of scientific academies in several cities of the nascent Republic. Five years after the libertarian deed, the work of the protomedicato declines its attributions before the Faculty of Medicine, which writes on October 26, 1827 the first page of its annals, when the Central University creates the Medical Faculty of the Department of Ecuador and District of the South, replacing the old Medical School of Quito.
Conclusion: the advent of libertarian ideas and the establishment of the Republic, the Ecuadorian medical training is sheltered from European influence, particularly French and later Anglo-Saxon influence.