Alberto Hernández Cañero

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Doctor of Sciences and Professor Emeritus, one of the principal founders of the National Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery and its first Director. Mentor to several generations of Cuban cardiology specialists.

He was born in San Cristóbal, a municipality in the province of Pinar del Río. He completed primary education at the public school in his hometown, secondary education at the Institute of Secondary Education in La Habana, and his medical degree at the University of La Habana.

According to his own account, he pursued this career due to the social environment prevailing in republican Cuba in the late 1930s of the twentieth century.

His father was a pharmacist and had purchased a pharmacy, in which Alberto assisted him as a "practical" – as empirical technicians were called at the time.
It appears that his direct contact with medications was influential; but above all, his contact with the sick, who in those times, for the most part lacking economic resources to visit a doctor, conducted their consultations directly with pharmacists.

This direct and frequent contact with pain, illness, and people's suffering inclined him toward the study of a career that seemed to him at that time – and continues to seem – one of the most humane.

His medical teaching practices were conducted at the General Hospital "Calixto García", in the Yarini ward, where the Chair of Medical Clinic was located, under the direction of Professor Rogelio Lavín.

From the beginning of his career, he was drawn toward cardiology, which he practiced in the Yarini ward and in the former Hospital "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes". Later, he would also conduct cardiology practice at the Municipal Children's Hospital, which would later become the Pediatric Hospital "Pedro Borrás Astorga". It was precisely at this latter center where studies of congenital heart diseases, angiocardiography, and intracardiac catheterizations first began in Cuba.

He began teaching in the Chair of Medical Clinic itself, in the Yarini Ward, first as an associate physician from 1946 to 1950. From that year until 1954, he served as an Instructor.

On July 31, 1953, at the scientific session held at the Municipal Children's Hospital, he presented a paper on Cardiac Catheterization in Congenital Malformations, in collaboration with doctors Otto García Díaz, Eloína González Vega, Gloria Varela, Ángel Giral Casielles, and Agustín Castellanos González. The first text published in the world on catheterization in congenital malformations had appeared in 1949, authored by Cournand.

At the former Hospital Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, today Hospital Comandante Manuel Fajardo, he created the cardiovascular research service, which was a center for cardiology training and the embryo of the current Institute, thereby contributing to its development and to the formation of the national cardiology network.

With the triumph of the revolution in 1960, due to the exodus of professors and cardiology specialists, he was called by the University's Governing Board to participate again in teaching.

In 1962, the cardiology specialty was created and he was part of its faculty. From that moment on, cardiology services were established in the 14 provincial hospitals and some municipal ones, as well as in the teaching hospitals of the city of La Habana.

In 1966, the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery was founded and he served as its Director from then until just a few years ago.

He is a Full Professor, Consultant, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Medical Sciences of La Habana, Full Researcher, Doctor of Sciences, and Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba for the period 06/07/2002 - 18/11/2006.

He has given lectures and presented papers in more than 20 cities in different countries around the world.
For his contributions to the specialty – among which is his undisputed leading role in training new specialists who, from 24 that existed, today the country has more than 400 with superior scientific training and humanist and ethical principles – and his sense of responsibility and social commitment in professional, teaching, and managerial practice in one of the country's most important health institutions.

He has received several distinctions and decorations, among them, the Carlos J. Finlay Order; Medal for the 250th Anniversary of the University of La Habana; Distinction for Cuban Education; Comandante Manuel Fajardo Medal; Distinguished Services Medal of the FAR; Medal for 30 Years of the Ministry of Interior; Distinguished Cardiologist and Medal of the Central American and Caribbean Cardiology Society.