The Time is Now: The Wind is in Our Favor

It is a true honor and privilege to express in words the editorial of the flourishing and prestigious Revista Iberolatinomericana de Cirugía de la Mano. I thank its director and my personal friend, Dr. Vicente Carratalá, for giving me the responsibility on this occasion.

We are going through moments of intergenerational cultural change forced by the societies in which we live and by exceptional international situations, including, for instance, experiencing and suffering from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These moments resulted in relevant changes not only in how we relate, but also in the discovery (for many of my generation) of virtual networks, which have enabled us to continue and increase the transmission and dissemination of scientific knowledge and strengthen connections within our medical community. Today, the group of hand surgeons in Ibero-Latin America is experiencing a significant moment in the history of our societies. Perhaps I express this in a biased way because cultural ties, roots, families, and generational empathy unite us like we have never experienced before, at least as far as I know. Currently, we can assure you, consistent with the concepts expressed in the editorial (RICMA, v.47, n. 2/2019) by another friend, Dr. Pedro J. Delgado, current president of Sociedad Española de Cirugía de la Mano (SECMA), that wrist arthroscopy was the surgical technique and instrument that has helped the most to make this possible.

It is common knowledge that this technique had its first scientific dissemination by authors such as Terry Whipple and Gary G. Poehling, in the United States, and James Roth, in Canada. However, it was in Europe, precisely in France, where an enthusiastic group of European hand surgeons, led by professor Christophe Mathoulin, a “mentor”, created first the Groupe European pour l'Arthroscopie du Poignet (GEAP) and then the European Wrist Arthroscopy Society (EWAS). Professor Mathoulin's tireless work in Europe and particularly his great support for Latin America reflected in the EWAS presidency of Dr. Gustavo Mantovani, from Brazil, which professor Mathoulin helped to develop notably for its dissemination in the region. In 2008, together with this great innovator and other friendly colleagues, we began a regional crusade to replicate the concept of the European society in Latin America through numerous courses with a hands-on modality, initially at Hospital Universitario Austral, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the collaboration of Drs. William Geissler (United States) and Niholas Goddard (United Kingdom). Dr. René Jorquera and his group quickly joined, along with other colleagues from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and other countries, generating today a great community of scientific interaction and extensive ties of friendship and collaboration. Personally, I believe that Spain has been a cardinal link in terms of stimulating and training new generations of hand surgeons, also enriching the development and evolution of the wrist arthroscopy technique. In this task, a long list of world-renowned professionals, led by Dr. Francisco Del Piñal, teacher and former president of the EWAS, have contributed not only to the aforementioned but have managed to put the regional focus on a global level.

The awakening of new young specialists with great creativity and dedication led Ibero-Latin America to a new level. It is time for the global scientific community to learn about our great “human capital”, and the best way to do so is through our scientific works published in our RICMA journal. Latin America has already started and is committed to this work. 2023 was a year full of work and high regional growth, resulting in Latin America being noted worldwide. In this sense, to enhance the development of the new generations following us, we have created the Latin American Wrist Association (LAWA) together with Drs. Mantovani, Jorquera, and prominent colleagues from across the region. In addition, we were awarded by the presence of the current RICMA editor and current SECMA president. As a founding priority, one of the purposes was to encourage hand and wrist surgeons to present all their scientific works in the RICMA journal with an irresistible premise: language will not be an obstacle. The journal is translated into English and is open to the global scientific community.

In 2019, given the high international interest, EWA evolved into the International Wrist Arthroscopy Society (IWAS), which today I have the honor, the challenge, and the great responsibility of presiding. This parent entity brings together all wrist arthroscopists distributed on the five continents and is currently responsible for numerous cadaveric instruction courses, webinars, symposiums, and conferences. My primary objective is to intensify the contribution of this task and promote scientific publications from the region in the journal.

I believe “the time is now, the wind is in our favor” to position RICMA as an internationally indexed publication through our academic efforts, completing the work of those who, from its beginnings, pushed to fulfill this desire. Intergenerational work, with talented and dedicated professionals like Drs. Ricardo Kaempf and Marcio Aita, from Brazil, Gustavo Gómez and Ezequiel Zaindenberg, from Argentina, Francisco Melibosky and Javier Roman Veas, from Chile, and Fabio Tandioy, from Colombia, to name just a few of a long list of Latin American surgeons, will, together with the entire “Spanish Armada”, collaborate to achieve the success of this goal.

Publication History

Article published online:
07 June 2024