Letter to the Editor “Historia del Cuidado Intensivo en Colombia”

I would like to make a few comments and precisions regarding the letter from the editor entitled “The History of Intensive Care in Colombia”¹:

Dr. Matiz is initially very precise in his account, but as he approaches to more recent history, he falls into imprecisions:

• 1.

  The last Board of Directors of the Colombian Society of Intensive Care (SCCI in Spanish) was very deficient and caused concern among intensivists throughout the country, leading to the parallel formation of two more professional organizations: the Colombian Association of Critical Medicine (ACMC) with headquarters on the coast and the Colombian Association of Intensive Care (ACCI) with headquarters in Bogotá. This obliged us to resume the functions not performed during the last presidency of the SCCI. We had to unify the three existing organizations as a condition imposed by the Pan-American and Iberian Federation of Critical Medicine and Intensive Therapy Societies (FEPIMCTI in Spanish) and the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSCCM).

• 2.

  After six months of negotiations, on March 23, 1996, the three organizations were unified under the current name, Colombian Association of Critical Medicine and Intensive Care (AMCI), inheriting its legal status from the SCCI. The Board of Directors was established through open voting and Dr. Juan Martín González León was elected as the first president. The AMCI achieved re-affiliation to the FEPIMCTI and the WFSCCM, the admission of new members, the establishment of regional boards, the periodical organization of a still-running national congress, and an official journal. They also initiated the process of creating regulations for the specialty for the Ministries of Education and Health.

• 3.

  The AMCI is the only Colombian association of critical care that is recognized by the World and Ibero-Panamerican Federations of this specialty. http://www.amci.org.co/institucional/membresias

Financing

The author was not sponsored to carry out this article.

Conflicts of interest

The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.