 Good afternoon, my name is Bibi Aguerrevere. Thank you very much for the invitation to speak at the 50th anniversary of the profusion school at THI. I'll be talking about international profusion education in Latin America. As we all know, there was a lot of going on in the 50th in development on cardiac surgery. Back in the South, animal experimentation took place in the first quarter of the 50th, but it wasn't until the late 50s where cardiac surgery developed. I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with this picture that is hanging in the profusion office of THI. I was trained in THI at 2006, and I'm from Venezuela. So I had the privilege to work in this hospital in Venezuela where Dr. Denton Cooley developed the first cardiac surgery. It has to be said that Brazil has been pioneer in developing techniques, hardware, and also oxygenators in Latin America. But what is curious is that the term profusionist came from Bennett Mitchell, who was originally from Trinidad and Tobago, which is an island from the Caribbean. He migrated to New York and he determined in 1974 that the person who operated the Harlem machine could be called profusionist. This lady called Alileni Perez Aleman has been visionary and very enthusiastic to put together this project called the Latin American Profusion Society. She developed the idea on, divide Latin America in five regions so they can communicate and stay together in the growth of profusion through time. A lab seeks to raise the integral level of the profusionist and standardize both training and practice of profusion in Latin America. So far, a lab scope is continent presence. We have 1,200 members. We have had two big meetings, one in Costa Rica and the other one in Bogota. They take place every three years with a percentage of attended 300 profusionists every time. We have an index journal called On Pump or in Bombay in Spanish and it's translated to Portuguese and soon it's gonna be translated into English. In terms of continuing education, every year we perform annual programs of regional symposiums through the five regions that I said before. So we replicate the information in the five regions. Monthly, we perform webinars and study groups with topics of interest. We have one profusion master's in Latin America. And so far we have developed three online courses that are called competences of the profusionist, research in profusion and components of cardiopulmonary bypass. A lab's objective for this year is to develop local and scientific evidence in profusion through research and publication. To speak in terms of the Latin American Board of Cardiovascular Profusion, this project was launched in 2019. It was a tough project because it's difficult to put together a whole continent. In this time where internet and WhatsApp and a lot of information going back and forth. But right now, after a hard work of all of the profusionists that are together in this project, the Latin Americans see the board as a certification of quality. It is a public document and I'll be given a little bit of update of how things are going on. We have received collaboration through these years from ABCP, the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Profusion and the European Board. It has been tough, as I said before, to get this project on board. This paper specifically gave us lights of that we were not alone and the drawbacks that we have had are written in this paper. So where are we right now? We're here, we're performing the test and probably this is gonna happen to us because a lab right now is offering the credentials to its own members through the board. So basically it's gonna happen that we're gonna need an agency that accredits the programs, the profusion programs, so we can separate a lab from the board as it happens with AMSET and the Latin American Board of Cardiovascular Profusion. So the board right now is contacting the schools for the approach that the board is interested in those students that are graduating to perform the board and to state update in education. So the process right now we are in the inclusion period which has been due in the past two years. It ends at the end of this year and we don't have a grandfather morality. It's 50% pass or fail. The test is divided into two sections, basic science of cardiovascular profusion and clinical activity. The test is performed through a platform and online very secure platform. It's a three hour test. It's monitored with different monitors through the webcam and it's called test invite. So from next year on, we pass to the final period which is called regular period. The test is longer than the one from the first period and it's at 70% pass. But the requirements are different. Now the profusion, it's wants to sit for the boards has to come from an accredited profusion school. In terms of recertification, the profusionist has to perform 40 cases per year and 45 CEUs every three years. Where to declare or to upload that information. Right now we're developing the webpage for that but now we're doing it in a lapse app which was basically made for calculations but has a section for the board. So this has been done manually by the person who is working for the Latin American profusion board. This person's goes through every profile and updates the CEUs manually. So it has been very tough but we were going on. And thank you very much for the support. We're basically investing right now in platforms and in ways of uploading all this information to have it renew every year and every three years in the recertification process. So in terms of profusion programs in Latin America, there's 17 programs currently in Latin America. Most of them are diploma or a specialist. That is a very common form of title in Latin America. There's one profusion program, master some masters in Dominican Republic and so far there are approximately two or three programs closed. Most of them have university are indexed to a university. So I'm gonna speak a little bit about the master's program. This is my class from 2006 in THI. And I'm currently the director of the master's program in Dominican Republic. I have to be said that I'm so thankful to have had the best teachers and classmates ever. I got a lot of experience in how you taught us there, the methodology, how you come out of THI as a profusionist. I told Debbie that in the past meeting that I translated the profusion evaluation sheet from THI and this is the methodology that we use here to evaluate the students, the current students from the master's. So thank you very much for my mentors and my professors. So this is the master's programs in DR. So far we have had three classes. It's a two-year program. We have received students from Panama, from Colombia, from Ecuador, from Belize and from Chile. This year in the class 2023, we have a hybrid modality. So we have local students which they were not profusionist but we have other five students in the hybrid modality that they are already profusionist but they want to go for the master's. So they perform in the two-year period, an online part and the other part, they come and pump cases in the cardiac hospital at Dominican Republic. We have received collaborations from profusionists from the States because we have missions that comes through to this hospital and it has been very nice to interact with profusionists. Lately we had a profusionist from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Mount Sinai, and every time they come, they give us excellent idea. So it's very interesting what's going on here. Students really appreciate it. If any of you want to collaborate to give an online class or come here to the program and stay a while with us and give some classes, we're more than happy. Thank you very much for the invitation. I really wanna say a special thanks to the ABCP. Anytime I have the opportunity to say it, I'm gonna say it through the past three years. Thanks and greetings from Latin America. It was a pleasure to be here. Bye.