Jaime Alemañy Martorell

Alemañy has dedicated his life to ophthalmology, having been head of service in this specialty at the hospitals "General Calixto García", "Comandante Manuel Fajardo" and "Hermanos Ameijeiras". Permanent member of the Court of Scientific Degrees for Surgical Specialties. Doctor of Science, Merit Researcher, Full Member of the Academy and Professor of Merit. But above all he has been a physician, professor and health director of high competence, a hardworking, humble and solidary man, who is a true example for present and future generations.

Son of Francisco and Antonia, he was born at Quinta La Balear, in Havana, on July 20, 1922; but was registered in Caibarién, Las Villas.

Son of a small bourgeois family, he studied primary education, Commerce and Secondary School at the Colegio de los Hermanos Maristas de Caibarién, which was affiliated with the Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de Remedios, graduating in 1941. He enrolled in medicine at the University of Havana, where he graduated in 1951.

During his university student years he worked as a Laboratory Technician at the Hospital de Dementes, in Mazorra, from 1946-48. Later, from 1949 to March 1952, he worked in the Medical Department of Public Works; but for refusing to sign Batista's Constitutional Statutes, he was dismissed. During the Batista dictatorship he was an opponent of the regime, collaborating with the M-26-7 and the Revolutionary Directorate.

In 1955 he began working as an ophthalmologist at the Clínica Los Ángeles, in El Vedado and the following year he combined this work with a position as ophthalmologist at the Clínica "Nuestra Señora del Carmen" (today Centro de Retinosis Pigmentaria Camilo Cienfuegos), also in El Vedado, the year in which he also began his teaching activity as an Assistant to the Chair of "Diseases of the Eyes and their clinic", at the University Hospital "General Calixto García". He remained at Clínica Los Ángeles until the triumph of the Revolution and at the Carmen clinic until 1961.

In 1959 he had been a member of the Management Committee of the Medical Party of the Revolution and participated as a delegate at the National Medical Assembly, in December of that year, in Santiago de Cuba. There he was designated by the Executive of the Medical Party to challenge the Treasurer's Report of the then Executive Committee of the National Medical College in relation to Medical Insurance regarding the construction of the building that MINSAP now occupies. The discussion lasted two days and was interrupted to hold elections, where Dr. Oscar Fernández Mell was elected President, and Dr. Jorge Aldereguía Valdés-Brito as Secretary. Alemañy was one of the speakers on the only topic that could be discussed: "The creation of Medical Militias", joining them from their inception.

In August 1960, when Dr. José Ramón Machado Ventura took office as Minister, he appointed him his Personal Delegate in the Direction of Public Health in the Municipality of Marianao, a position he held until October 1962, when he was appointed advisor to the Ministry of Public Health in the specialty of ophthalmology. In that same year 1960 he was categorized as an Instructor in teaching.

These professional responsibilities did not prevent him from taking on other responsibilities in the social field. In January 1961 he had closed his private practice, located at 23 and L, in El Vedado.

In April, when the invasion at Playa Girón occurred, Commanders Machado Ventura, Minister of Public Health; Oscar Fernández Mell, Head of Military Health; and Gilberto Cervantes, President of the National Red Cross, appointed him Head of Civil Defense of District F, in Marianao.

In January 1963 he was appointed Head of the Ophthalmology Service at the Hospital "General Calixto García", and in that same month he achieved the teaching category of Assistant Professor and in September of the same year the category of Full Professor in his specialty.

He combined the position of Head of Service with the responsibility of Technical Sub-Director of the institution until February of the following year. A month later, he served as Director of the Hospital, a position he held until September 1971. During that time, he was also appointed Head of the National Ophthalmology Group, in 1967.

In 1972 he was appointed Head of the Ophthalmology Service at the Hospital "Comandante Manuel Fajardo", a responsibility he assumed for ten years, until he was appointed Head of the Ophthalmology Service at the then newly inaugurated Hospital "Hermanos Ameijeiras", in 1982. The previous year he had achieved the scientific category of Doctor in Medical Sciences.

Since its founding he has been a Permanent Member of the Court of Scientific Degrees for Surgical Specialties. In 1992, he achieved the higher degree of Doctor in Science, Merit Researcher in 2002 and Professor of Merit in 2003.

He belongs to several Cuban Scientific Societies, among which stand out: Full Member of the Cuban Society of Ophthalmology, since 1958; Member of the Cuban Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired (ANCI), since 1978; and Full Member of the Cuban Society of History of Medicine, since 1986, in which he achieved the category of Honorary Member, in 1997 and Member of its Board of Directors since 2000.

In 1994 he was elected, by acclamation, President of the newly initiated Society "Centro Balear", a position he held for ten years.

And he also belongs to several foreign scientific societies, such as the Instituto Barraquer, in Barcelona and the Sociedad Hispano Americana of Madrid, both since 1955. The latter became, in 1970, the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology. He was a Member of the Pan-American Society of Ophthalmology from 1956 to 1961, when, as U.S. problems with Cuba intensified, he was sidelined. Member of the International Council of Ophthalmology (Geneva); of the French Ophthalmological Society; of the Spanish Ergoophthalmology Society; Merit Member of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology; Member of the Pan-American Society of Eye Banks and, in 2002, he was reinstated to the Pan-American Society of Ophthalmology.

Since 1954, when he received a refraction course taught by Dr. Luis Pérez Martínez, to the present day, he has received more than 20 postgraduate courses in the specialty and in pedagogy, national courses. Abroad, since May 1956, when he received his first strabismus course, taught by Dr. Alfonso Catanera Pueyo, in Spain, to the present day, he has received a dozen courses in various European countries.

Since the courses for Medical Technicians in Ophthalmology began in 1960, he was the National Coordinator until 1982.

Since 1975 to date he has taught a dozen national postgraduate courses, in addition to having been the Coordinator of 4 others, taught by foreign specialists.

He has been Tutor and Advisor for numerous Residency Completion Theses of Cuban doctors and one Vietnamese; and Tutor for two candidates for doctors in medical sciences, who defended their Theses with excellence; and Opponent for another candidate.

He has participated as Court President in more than 100 cases of promotion in teaching categories and for obtaining the II Degree of the specialty.

He has participated in all National, Provincial and Regional events of the Cuban Society of Ophthalmology presenting more than 30 scientific works; and in more than twenty International Ophthalmology events, in countries of Latin America, Europe, Asia and also in the USA, presenting scientific works in all of them.

Among his publications stand out Administrative Standards in Ophthalmology; National Survey of Ophthalmology in Children's Circles and Kindergartens; Local Treatment with Interferon during the Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis Epidemic and Surveys of the Blind and Main Causes of Blindness in Members of the National Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired (ANCI), all of them results of respective research; and two historical publications: Historical Antecedents of Cuban Ophthalmology and the History of the Juan Santos Fernández Pavilion; and in the field of teaching, the Book that has served as Text for the Ophthalmology Subject, published in 1983, of which three reprints have been published and is currently in use in the medical program.

He has participated in television programs, as moderator of Round Table Discussions to address topics such as: Ocular Protection for Workers; National Ophthalmology Survey November; Development of Ophthalmology in Cuba and the Sanitary Hearing on Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis in Cuba.

Among his numerous recognitions, distinctions and medals, received throughout his years of fruitful work, stand out:
- Diploma of University Dignity.
- Merit Member of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology.
- Recognition as Outstanding in Public Health on the occasion of the Centenary of PAHO/1902-2002)
- Recognition "La Giraldilla de La Habana" from the Provincial Assembly of Popular Power.
- Recognition Don Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra by the Federation of Spanish Societies of Cuba.
- Medal "250th Anniversary of the University of Havana".
- Medal "Manuel Fajardo"
- Medal "José Tey"
- Order "Frank País" of II Grade
- Order "Carlos J. Finlay"
- Coin of the Centenary of the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba.

Source: Infomed.
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