Historical overview of ATLS by Dr. Pablo Rodriguez Ortiz
*Instructor of longer tenure as instructor – 1989.
*Director of the Puerto Rico Trauma Center
*Trauma Committee Chairman, currently serving his second term
*President of the Trauma Council, named by the Department of Health
Overview:
ATLS was first offered in Puerto Rico in 1982, only two years after it started being taught at a national level in the United States. Therefore, Puerto Rico has one of the most seasoned and long-lived programs of all places where this course is taught. The course has been continuously offered in Puerto Rico since that year. This course positively impacted the Dominican Republic when Puerto Rico became its course patron. Initially, a group of Dominicans traveled to Puerto Rico to take the providers’ course. Afterwards, the course was offered in the Dominican Republic with the equipment and mannequins utilized in Puerto Rico, as well as with a staff of instructors that served as supervisors to the Dominicans that had been trained in Puerto Rico as instructors and certified by ATLS in Puerto Rico. That is how ATLS came into being at the Dominican Republic in 2019, assisted by ATLS- Puerto Rico. The ATLS program in Puerto Rico was recognized by the Trauma Committee of the American College of Surgeons in 2017 for its 35th anniversary. Now in 2024, this same program will celebrate its 42nd year in Puerto Rico. Since the start, it has been offered in the Experimental Laboratory, which is located on the 10th floor of the Medical Sciences Campus. It was only offered outside of this property in Guayama in 1989 and in Ponce in 2006. One of the greatest achievements of ATLS is that it has been extended to surgical residents who have taken the course as providers and have been later certified as instructors. Hence, they have become the core of course professors while they complete their years of training in Surgery. Consequently, this ensures that the management of the polytraumatized patient in the Puerto Rico Trauma Center is of excellence due to experienced instructors and the residents that have been dedicated to providing the course during their training. These have demonstrated their capability to serve as instructors and manage patients with the expertise of a surgeon that knowns the ATLS concepts. This course has turned into one of the pillars of the Puerto Rico Trauma Center. It is also the educational program from the Trauma Committee of the American College of Surgeons. This way, they provide the tools and knowledge so that the patients that arrive to the facility are managed emulating the concepts that have been proven and established to be the most accurate when managing Trauma patients. We invite you to join this effort of saving lives by integrating into the ATLS family.
