The Doctor. Antonio Carlos Matteoni de Athayde, president of the Brazilian College of Radiology and Image Diagnosis (CBR) in 2015 and 2016, became, on July 14th, by unanimous vote, president-elect of the Latin American Federation of Societies of Ultrasonography (Flaus). The fact occurred in an assembly held during the XVIII Congress of the entity, held in the capital of São Paulo.
In addition to Dr. Matteoni, Flaus' board of directors for the next two years was defined as follows: Dr. Jorge Rabat of Venezuela became acting president; The Doctor. Luis Fernando Chavarría Estrada of Costa Rica, the past president; the Dr. Edda Chaves, also from Venezuela, became secretary; and Dr. Fernando Huerta of Peru was named treasurer.
One of the future activities will be the organization in 2019 of the XIX Flaus Congress, to be held in October of that year, in the city of Fortaleza (CE). “Obviously, the other aspects of Flaus will not be forgotten, but in my particular case, I have a greater obligation with the organization of the event, which will be in conjunction with the Brazilian Congress of Radiology”, explains Dr. Matteoni.
According to him, within the Flaus community, the city of Fortaleza had a very good reception, as everyone knows its beauty and its wonderful beaches. “I believe that we will have a very significant number of Latin Americans in Congress, and during these two years we will work focused on that”, he says.
Regarding his future role as president in 2019, Dr. Matteoni says he sees in Flaus an important role related to the poorest countries. “The primary function of the entity is precisely to disseminate continuing medical education and the training of doctors who practice Ultrasound in countries with lower financial conditions, as we know that countries like Brazil and Argentina are able to train their own doctors in this area, but there are others with totally opposite realities in Latin America. This is Flaus' main mission and we are going to identify some means that will help us to carry it out.”
The event
Held between the 13th and 15th of July, the Congress of Flaus, which is held every two years, had as a novelty the participation online, and in two ways: via simultaneous transmission or through reruns. Dr. Cristina Chammas, former president of Flaus, played an important role in organizing this event.
“Within the difficulties we had, with the change of headquarters, holding an international congress with only 60 days was a success, a success. The participants really liked the scientific level”, concludes Dr. Matteoni.