By Luis E. Raez, MD
Posted: December 2017
Under the sponsorship of the IASLC, the Peruvian Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (APBNI) organized a seminar on bronchoscopy ultrasound (EBUS) and navigational bronchoscopy in Lima, Peru, on July 21, 2017. IASLC members Dr. Pedro Garcia-Mantilla, a pulmonologist at the Guillermo Almenara Hospital in Lima, and Dr. Francisco Tarrazzi, from the Memorial Cancer Institute in Miami, US, were among the faculty; Dr. Garcia-Mantilla was the Chair. They taught EBUS using real-life cases, working on several Peruvian patients who needed staging during the seminar and who had not had the opportunity before because these technologies were not previously available. They were joined by Dr. Adnan Majid from Harvard Medical School, Boston, US, and Dr. Rex Yung from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, US.
This is a great development for patients at hospitals in Peru and in other countries in the region that not only do not have the equipment for EBUS but also lack trained physicians to use it with the highest quality standards. Dr. Garcia-Mantilla has been working very hard in the last few years to bring these technologies to South America to benefit patients in the Latin-American region. IASLC sponsorship has supported several educational events in the region over the last 2 years. ✦
