Vice president and former minister of health of the Republic of Ecuador Alfredo Palacio will address Brigham Young University students and faculty Thursday, March 18, at 3 p.m. in 2084 Jesse Knight Humanities Building.
He will discuss health care in Ecuador and Latin America.
In addition to his national duties, Palacio is director of the National Institute of Cardiology in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and principal professor of cardiology at the University of Guayaquil.
He was previously president and vice president of the Ecuadorean Scientific Committee, regional director of the Ecuadorean Institute of Social Security and Ecuador's Minister of Health in the government of former President Sixto Durán-Ballen from 1992-96.
It was during his time as minister of health that Palacio became acquainted with President Lucio Gutierrez. In 2002, the two men joined forces on an anticorruption campaign platform, which resulted in their election in 2003.
Following graduation in medicine and surgery from the University of Guayaquil School of Medicine in 1969, Palacio specialized in internal medicine and cardiology at several U.S. hospitals.
Palacio completed medical residencies at Mt. Sinai and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, followed by a two-year cardiology fellowship at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Physicians and Chest Physicians; a founding member of the Colombian Society of Cardiology; and a member of the New York Academy of Science.
Palacio's father sculpted the monument in Guayaquil to Eloy Alfaro, former revolutionary and twice president of Ecuador.
His lecture is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. For more information, please contact David Laraway, (801) 422-3807.
Writer: Lee Simons
