Natural from the town of Cabure, Petit municipality of the Falcón state, the pathologist is the first doctor in this region raised to the number of individual of the National Academy of Medicine, which presides since June 2 by free and secret election of its members
Enrique López Loyo is the first Falconian to preside over the National Academy of Medicine, after an election in which he obtained 100% of the votes to exercise this important function during the period 2020-2022, especially to lead activities and changes. that all its members have proposed.
The distinction of occupying the chair where the renowned doctor and scientist Jacinto Convit was has not pierced the simplicity of his character, but has elevated his social commitment to Venezuela, from medical practice. He maintains that the country is not over and will not end and invites young people to rebuild it from academic work.
In telephone contact with The PitazoLópez Loyo appreciated the distinction on which he declared that he feels honored and committed to following the medical precepts with which he was trained.
Born on April 26, 1966, the Falconian doctor, originally from the town of Cabure, Petit municipality in the Falcón state, has, according to those who know him, a compassionate character with his patients, with science and medicine. He maintains an optimistic thought, has overcome personal, family and professional difficulties and has dedicated himself to research to expand his understanding of human nature.
Enrique López Loyo is the first graduate of the Francisco de Miranda National Experimental University (Unefm) to arrive at the National Academy of Medicine. Before that, he was president of the Network of Scientific Societies of Venezuela, which brings together more than 40 medical organizations, from where he began efforts to link the philosophy, history and evolution of the medical society in the country, in order to update it and give it international prominence.
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In February 2018, Dr. Enrique López Loyo was sworn in as Number Individual of the National Academy of Medicine, occupying a chair that he left after the death of Dr. Jacinto Convit | Photo courtesy
Cancer and José Gregorio Hernández
The fact that his mother died of breast cancer motivated him to go even further into research, microscopy, and pathology. At the end of his rural career, he began his residency in internal medicine at the Dr. Alfredo Van Grieken University Hospital, in Coro, where he participated in and graduated in Pathological Anatomy at the Anatomopathological Institute of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). “The rest is history,” he said.
Another of the merits of the pathologist López Loyo is his participation as editor of the Caracas Medical Gazette, founded by Dr. Luis Razetti on April 15, 1893, the third oldest important publication in Latin America.
He was also the author of “José Gregorio Hernández: the epoxy of his laboratory”, a book that shows a descriptive analysis of the first scientific laboratory, which reveals a multidimensional vision of Hernández, as a man of science and doctor, under a more current perspective of Venezuelan medicine.
Currently, López Loyo continues his research on José Gregorio Hernández and what his work represented for the medical sciences. He does it together with Dr. Rafael Muci-Mendoza, former president of the National Academy of Medicine and representative of the Academy before the commission in charge of the beatification process. They will even publish a second book on this subject in the coming months.
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His godfather of baptism was Carlos Andrés Pérez, then candidate for the presidency of Venezuela | Courtesy
Godson of Carlos Andrés Pérez
For the Falconian doctor his career is a conviction of life. Knowing the pain closely, both in acquaintances or friends, increased their curiosity to cure or alleviate the sick. However, he recognizes that the result is not always as expected, but affirms that under any circumstance the doctor must accompany the process of his patient.
It is clear. Born and raised under the rigors of family field training, he recognizes that having lived his first years in the Falconian mountains, in an environment where there was no talk of east or west – as in Caracas – nor of the rich or the poor, but of brotherhood among his neighbors, they challenge him to follow the life convictions he learned from his family.
Of adecos and serrano parents, Salomón López García and Hilda Loyo de López García, dedicated to raising cattle, the production of dairy products and planting corn, is the youngest of ten brothers, most of them teachers and university professors. His godfather of baptism was Carlos Andrés Pérez, at that time a candidate for the presidency of Venezuela.
Those family values that López Loyo spoke about are the pillars that today raise him to be better in medicine, in teaching, in research, as a husband, father, brother and friend.
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The hypertrophy in the number of students to justify a budget and that it has 13,000 students scattered in 18 nuclei in the country, alienate the academy from the young man who studies medicine at Unefm
Dr. Enrique López Loyo, President of the National Academy of Medicine
It is for this reason that he has been a harsh critic of the Barrio Adentro program, of the meddling of Cuban doctors into the Venezuelan health network and his poor training, a situation that caused him problems when he was the head of the Pathology department of the National Institute. de Higiene, where he was persecuted, accused and forced to leave his post in 2008, prematurely, as he cataloged it.
A tireless critic of extreme politicization, overcrowding, lack of investment in structure and maintenance of the public health network, he also disagreed with the change in selection criteria for both students and teachers for the university area.
He regretted that his Alma Mater, recognized as one of the best houses of study in the country, has declined, when one of the keys to the success of this university had been its operation without any political bias.
The increase in the number of students to justify a budget and the fact that it has 13,000 students scattered in 18 nuclei throughout the country, distances the academy from the young medical student. In his opinion, these centers are not capable of guaranteeing effective training regarding the medical specialties offered.
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López Loyo accompanied by other members of the National Academy of Medicine who joined at the age of 42 years old | Courtesy
Worked with Convit
With a life of academic achievements, Dr. Enrique Santiago López Loyo, a medical surgeon graduated from Unefm, a specialist in Pathological Anatomy at the Central University of Venezuela, a Doctor in Medical Sciences from the University of Zulia, was appointed Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2009 with only 42 years of age, with the application of the College of Physicians of the Falcón state and the endorsement of a faultless career.
Seven years later, after the death of Dr. Jacinto Convit, who was also a medical reference in the country and the world, he occupies the XXXI chair assigned to him by his teacher as Individual Number of the Venezuelan Medical Academy, where he begins to climb seats within of the board as secretary in 2016, vice president in 2018 and now the presidency in 2020.
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Jacinto Convit was an austere person from every point of view. He was not a talkative man and preferred to talk to someone with a specific project
Dr. Enrique López Loyo, President of the National Academy of Medicine
“I met Dr. Convit when I was at the National Institute of Hygiene, because he required the services in the area of experimentation on several occasions, while conducting research on leishmania. He asked for my evaluation of the mice from the bioterium of the Institute of Biomedicine, where he had his laboratory. All that was in search of the vaccine for leishmaniasis ”, he detailed.
Remember Jacinto Convit as an austere person from all points of view. He said he was not a talkative man and preferred to speak to someone with a specific project at the institute.
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Dr. Enrique López Loyo accompanied by his family | Courtesy
COVID-19
Now, 54 years old and facing a new commitment at the National Academy of Medicine, López Loyo is a member of the Health Commission made up of the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, from where he has drawn attention to the processes that the Nicolás Maduro’s government executes to face the problem of COVID-19 in Venezuela.
“We academies were right to say that the problem was going to flare up. There are expressions of this pandemic that are not being taken into account, so the cases of contagion will continue to increase, at the moment when the greatest social, economic and political crisis is facing, with the destruction of the basic health system, massive flight of talents in the area of medicine and improvisation on the part of the national executive in having personnel not prepared to deal with the pandemic, ”López Loyo declared to finish.
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The country is not over, nor is it going to end
Dr. Enrique López Loyo, President of the National Academy of Medicine
