Evaristo García Piedrahíta 1845-1921

Physician, public health expert, researcher, academic, social, and political leader This brief review highlights the extraordinary personality and achievements of Evaristo García Piedrahíta, a distinguished physician from Valle del Cauca who lived in the 19th century but remains largely unknown to the general public and even to many healthcare professionals. It also seeks to emphasize that in 1942, the Departmental Assembly of Valle del Cauca ordered that the hospital under construction be named after him and that his effigy be placed at the entrance of what is now called the Hospital Universitario del Valle Evaristo García1 (Figure 1). A few years after the founding of the School of Medicine, the San Juan de Dios Hospital was insufficient for the ambitious medical education reform plans promoted by Gabriel Velásquez, Alfonso Ocampo, and other leaders of the nascent School of Medicine of the Universidad del Valle. That is why they set out to finish the hospital that had been under construction for many years. Its inauguration took place in 1956 in the so-called Carlos Manzano Auditorium in the presence of city and department authorities. Since then, Hospital Universitario del Valle "Evaristo García" has been the flagship hospital of the Universidad del Valle. Distinguished professors and students have passed through it, and research of significant national and international importance has been carried out there.