Radrigán K María Eugenia
Rev Med Chil. 2015 Sep;143(9):1187-90. doi: 10.4067/S0034-98872015000900012.
Seldom, in the history of Chilean medicine, there has been such a unique parallelism between the professional development of a person and that of a discipline as it has been the case of Professor Ernesto L. Medina and Public Health in Chile. Dr. Medina's undergraduate (University of Chile) and postgraduate (Harvard School of Public Health) studies coincided with the foundation of the University of Chile School of Public Health by an agreement among the University and two governmental health care providers, and also with the foundation of the Chilean National Health Service. His research covered the epidemiology of non- infectious diseases in the adult, such as cancer, their socio economic impact, the importance of early detection, treatment and surveillance, as well as the epidemiology of other chronic diseases, accidents and new epidemics. As Director of the School of Public Health for 25 years, he promoted the development of disciplines and courses addressed to health and other care-providers in order to improve their knowledge and expertise as statisticians, epidemiologists, administrators, budget officers. An example of his innovative look at medical education was the creation of post graduate training in the basic clinical specialties combined with public health, in order to have specialists able to undertake both the clinical and administrative duties at the primary care clinics. These programs ran in parallel with the rural internships financed by the Kellogg Foundation at the School of Medicine. Enumerating the distinctions and prizes awarded to Professor Medina would be too long for the purpose of this tribute, and selecting just a few would run the risk of being unfair. Still, there is one: the "Orden de la Cruz del Sur" that deserves the exception given its long existence and the fact that it was awarded to a physician "for distinguished achievements in Public Health".
在智利医学史上，像埃内斯托·L·梅迪纳教授与智利公共卫生这样，一个人的职业发展与一门学科的发展如此独特地并行的情况很少见。梅迪纳博士的本科学习（智利大学）和研究生学习（哈佛公共卫生学院）恰逢智利大学公共卫生学院通过大学与两家政府医疗服务机构达成的协议而成立，同时也恰逢智利国家卫生服务局的成立。他的研究涵盖了成年人非传染性疾病的流行病学，如癌症、其社会经济影响、早期发现、治疗和监测的重要性，以及其他慢性病、事故和新流行病的流行病学。作为公共卫生学院院长长达25年，他推动了针对卫生和其他医疗服务提供者的学科和课程的发展，以提高他们作为统计学家、流行病学家、管理人员、预算官员的知识和专业技能。他对医学教育的创新见解的一个例子是创建了基础临床专业与公共卫生相结合的研究生培训，以便让专家能够在初级保健诊所承担临床和行政职责。这些项目与凯洛格基金会资助的医学院农村实习项目并行开展。罗列授予梅迪纳教授的荣誉和奖项，对于这篇致敬文章来说篇幅太长，而只选几个又有失公平之嫌。不过，有一个奖项值得特别提及，那就是“南十字勋章”，鉴于其悠久的历史以及授予一位医生“因其在公共卫生领域的杰出成就”这一事实。
