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WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JULY 2019
Editorial | Expert Point of View | WCOG 2019 | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events
The La Paz Training Center Revisited – the Legacy of
Guido Villa-Gomez MD MWGO
Eamonn M.M. Quigley, MD, FRCP, FACP, MACG,
FRCPI
Past President of WGO (2005-2009)
Houston, Texas
Henry Cohen, MD, FACG
Past President of WGO (2011-2013)
Montevideo, Uruguay
In February 2019 we participated in
the 15th international course at the
WGO Training Center in La Paz,
Bolivia. It was an experience that
was, on the one hand, exhilarating
and, on the other, tinged with a little
sadness. The exhilaration came from
witnessing at first hand and in all its
glory the success story that is the La
Paz Training Center; sadness on the
realization that the individual who
developed and has guided the center
for the past 15 years is stepping down
on the occasion of his retirement
from the University.
We were both privileged to have
been there on the occasion of the
inauguration of the center in 2005
as the first WGO Training Center
in Latin America and paid further
visits since then. The La Paz center
was always exactly what WGO had
in mind when the concept of training
centers was proposed. Accordingly,
La Paz presented a yearly course on
gastroenterology and gastrointestinal
endoscopy delivered by local
and international experts to young
gastroenterologists from across Latin
America and also provided extended
periods of training (for up to a year)
in selected areas of the specialty to
smaller numbers. Over the 15 years of
its existence over 400 “trainees” have
attended the La Paz center courses. In
looking through photographs from
The La Paz Center was
always exactly what WGO
had in mind when the
concept of training centers
was proposed. Unveiling of the La Paz Training Centerin 2005.