Many Enroll-HD sites are located at academic medical centers—institutions with medical schools and teaching hospitals, and often physically linked to elite universities. But the first study site to open in Chile is quite different. It is located at CETRAM, a unique patient-centered clinic in a working-class neighborhood in Santiago, the country’s biggest city. Since it launched at the end of 2013 it’s become the largest site in Latin America, with 80 people participating in Enroll-HD.

“Enroll is very important to us—it’s a new thing to offer,” says Daniela Alburquerque, executive director at CETRAM (Centro de trastornos del movimiento, or “Movement Disorders Center” in English). Participants “have the possibility of being part of something bigger that has benefits for all. It’s not only for you, for your family, but for all.

This community approach is part of the philosophy of CETRAM, a movement disorders clinic founded about 15 years ago with the aim of encouraging more collaborative relationships between medical professionals and families dealing with disease. (They don’t use the term “patient,” and refer instead to “users” or just “people”.) The idea is to replace the traditional hierarchical relationships of medicine with a more grassroots approach in which health professionals and people seeking treatment are all part of a team.

You can read the full article on the Enroll HD website here: https://www.enroll-hd.org/a-new-approach-in-chile/

 

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