AThe seminar was organised by the International Network for Digital Mental Health Promotion and Development of the Millennium Institute for Research in Depression and Personality (MIDAP) and took place at the Aula Magna of Universidad de La Frontera, providing an opportunity for updating and knowledge exchange on digital mental health.

The increasing number of remote medical consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic was the starting point to analyse the challenges and opportunities in the use of digital technologies to reduce the gaps in mental health care.

The international seminar brought national and international experts together at the Aula Magna of Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), in round table sessions, interventions, and various presentations.

The seminar “Digital Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities in Chile” was organised by the International Network for Digital Mental Health Promotion and Development of the Millennium Institute for Research in Depression and Personality (MIDAP), a project financed by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID).

“It is important to have access – between not having and having digital access, it is always better to have a certain mental health support. In the particular case of Chile, which is a large and narrow country, access is difficult. It is very important to consider this fact so that all people throughout the country can have access,” explained Markus Moessner, Ph.D. in Psychology and associate researcher at the Centre for Psychotherapy Research, University Hospital Heidelberg (Germany), who was in charge of opening the seminar.

According to Ricardo Araya, psychiatrist and academic at King’s College London and director of the Centre for Global Mental Health, the experience shows that there are many difficulties in meeting the needs of the population in terms of mental health solutions. In this sense, the digital era and technology allow to move forward and to close the treatment gaps.

“The pandemic left us some positive things: it forced us to think about mental health services in terms of delivering remote help since it was not possible to meet in person. It was a stimulus to rethink the digital era and to make progress with its development. Things that were questioned before are now normal, such as talking to a doctor through a screen, which was not very accepted before the pandemic, but now it is very current, feasible and many patients even prefer it,” added Ricardo Araya, who also won the National Prize for Applied Sciences and Technology in 2022.

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS
The international seminar included two round table discussions, which addressed the topics “Research and interventions in digital mental health”, with the speakers Natalia Salinas, Carola Pérez, Ángel Jiménez, and Soledad Coo; and “Digital mental health interventions in higher education”, with the participation of Viviana Guajardo, Álvaro Langer, and Álvaro Jiménez.

“We are very pleased with this activity organised by MIDAP and UFRO. It is always good to invite top-level guests and to be able to share presentations of this type with our students and with professionals from our region. You always have to try to update your knowledge and in this case, we have the possibility to get together with professionals from several universities. It proves the potential of collaborative work on a problem such as mental health, which is very important to solve in Chile,” explained the UFRO-MIDAP researcher Dr. Manuel Ortiz.

He pointed out that future research on digital mental health could study and analyse the reasons why people access remote care options more or less frequently. “Remote mental health care is a viable, effective alternative for people to access care. We have to consider that we have a lot of technology, which we are more familiar with and which eventually can make this easier when being well used by the people,” Dr. Manuel Ortiz concluded.

“Chilean Scientific Production cited by Public Policy Documents” is the name of the report published by the prestigious publisher Elsevier, in which UFRO is ranked fifth among the universities with the highest social impact through their research.

The SciVal platform carried out a detailed analysis of the performance of Chilean scientific productivity and its impact on public policies at the international level, based on data from 25,000 institutions in 230 countries.

The report states that public policy documents from 115 organizations in 28 countries mentioned Chilean research papers in 2022. The Ranking specifies that 113 out of 178 documents correspond to publications in open access journals and 92 of them have less than 10 authors. Among these documents, 128 are scientific articles. It is also worth mentioning that 73% of these papers are part of the 10% of the most cited publications worldwide. This is where Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) achieved fifth place in Chile, with the most scientific publications cited in international public policies.

According to Dr. Rodrigo Navia Diez, the vice-rector for Research and Graduate Studies of UFRO, this is a very important achievement, since it reflects the impact of the work developed at UFRO. “The first thing I want to point out is that this is a global ranking with Chilean universities. That means that our research is recognized internationally. According to this, in average 4% of our published papers are mentioned in public policy documents around the globe, and in different fields of knowledge,” he explained.

Among the fields of knowledge measured by the ranking, medicine stands out as the most cited field with 43%, followed by social sciences with 24.8% and environmental sciences with 20.4%.

“This fifth place shows that we are a university with a high-level scientific production,” added the vice-rector. In this context, he also explained that the main actions carried out to strengthen the fields of research, innovation, and graduate studies at UFRO is the support of new researchers who develop lines of research with a global scope and social impact.

The report specifies that the analysed Chilean universities published more than 500 documents in Scopus-indexed journals over the last five years (2018-2022), where UFRO stands out with 100 documents.

The activity took place at Universidad de La Frontera, with the participation of outstanding speakers and experts in the field of plastination.

For one week, eighteen academics, health experts, professionals and graduate students from nine countries participated in the 4th International Workshop on Plastination and Anatomical Techniques of Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), organised by the Laboratory for Plastination and Anatomical Techniques of the Faculty of Dentistry and the Centre of Excellence in Morphological and Surgical Studies (CEMyQ).

The workshop had a theoretical and a practical part, in which outstanding speakers in this field of knowledge, such as Dr. Telma Masuko from Universidad Federal de Bahía (Brazil), and Dr. Volker Schill, from Biodur, von Hagens Plastination GmbH (Germany), shared their knowledge, as well as Dr. Carlos Veuthey and the director of the Laboratory for Plastination and Anatomical Techniques, vice president of the International Society for Plastination, and director of the workshop, Dr. Nicolás Ottone from Universidad de La Frontera (Chile).

In addition, the professor Dr. Carlos Baptista from the University of Toledo, Ohio (USA), participated online, as well as the president of the International Society for Plastination, Dr. Dmitry Starchik.

According to Dr. Ottone, “the plastination technique makes it possible to preserve morphological, anatomical, human and animal structures in a biosecure way and for an indefinite period of time, for teaching, research and outreach purposes. We addressed this technique in the workshop, with theoretical classes in the morning and practical classes in the laboratory in the afternoon, for one week. The students developed all plastination techniques with silicone, epoxy and polyester resins, and micro-plastination to obtain ultra-thin slices”.

The first version of this workshop took place in 2017, after the implementation of the Laboratory for Plastination and Anatomical Techniques at UFRO. Since then, they organized four hands-on workshops, a certified course, and the 20th International Conference on Plastination.

“This shows that our work is internationally recognised, not only in terms of preparing plastinated material for teaching purposes but also regarding our research, with more than twenty WoS publications in the field of plastination so far. Currently, I am also the vice president of the International Society for Plastination, where I was the secretary before. That also gives UFRO great visibility at the international level,” Dr. Ottone pointed out.

PARTICIPANTS

The participants came from Canada, the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Chile this year.

The Director of the Pathologists’ Assistant Program in the School of Health Professions at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), USA, Dr. Marcela Lizarraga, emphasised the quality of the workshop and the importance of this technique for teaching and research. “Plastination lasts forever. We still do cadaver dissection, but that lasts only a semester or a year. After that, we have to return the bodies because they are cremated. In turn, with this plastination technique, we can have specimens that last forever. In addition, the students can handle them without special precautions, because the technique does not require any toxic or chemical substances,” she explained.

She was also pleased with the format of the workshop. “It is really good. I have the chance to ask questions about things I do not know. We are just starting with our laboratory, so I have many questions. Besides, here are experts for each phase of the process, so I can learn everything I need to get started,” she commented.

It is worth mentioning that this International Workshop, organised by Universidad de La Frontera, is the only training programme for plastination and anatomical techniques in South America.

High school students and graduates from 110 schools participated in more than 140 activities to get to know the university, its campus, its programs, and all it has to offer.

This year, Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) received about eight thousand high school students and graduates from 110 schools from the Araucanía Region, Bio Bío Region, and Los Ríos Region at the Open House UFRO 2023.

Activities organized by each of the 48 study programs, interactive presentations of the cultural and sports offer, guided tours, student development activities, live music, food trucks, and much more awaited the participants at the event, which was organized by UFROrienta, to show the high school students what it is like to study at UFRO.

Early in the morning, the buses from different schools started to arrive at UFROs Aula Magna, where the students could register for the day and start to participate in the 140 activities that were easy to access, thanks to the maps, programs, and schedules the students received.

To make it easier for the students to choose their future study program, they were able to participate in activities, such as surgical simulations or interactive physics experiments, organized by the different study programs of UFRO.

Paula Hidalgo Sánchez, the Coordinator for Program Promotion and Dissemination commented: “It was a great experience! What caught the attention of the students was the diversity of activities and that they were able to actively participate. We are very grateful for the efforts of our faculties, study programs, sports teams, our teams of outreach and community engagement, the library, student development, DIFEM, student associations, our artistic and cultural groups, and everybody who contributed to this event that allowed to really get to know our university.”

According to Pamela Ibarra, the Vice-rector for Undergraduate Affairs, the event was a complete success. “In this year’s version of UFROs Open House, we had many more participants than last year. We want to thank everybody involved in this event for their efforts and dedication – all teams, units, faculties, and the university community in general – who made this massive event a huge success,” she commented.

EXPERIENCES

	Fernanda Cesped Neculqueo, senior year high school student “The university received us very well. Everybody was very polite when we arrived and they gave us our badges and wristbands. We have already seen several videos with my class on the UFRO account, where they showed the map with a preview of the activities for today. What I liked the most was the Engineering area, because everybody was very motivated.”
	Carlos Trecamán Saavedra, senior year high school student “I had a lot of fun. This is the second time I have participated. I went to the engineering area, to mathematics pedagogy, and even participated in a drawing activity. They explained the Engineering Common Plan to me because I am very interested in that program. It is really great that the university organizes this kind of activity since it gives us the chance to escape the daily class routine and to come here to get to know the university.”
	Florencia Quil Cárdenas, high school student “This was a great experience. I went to see the medical study programs and, besides of getting to know how the classes work, I had the chance to learn how the doctors diagnose their patients, what symptoms are part of certain diseases, and how rehabilitation works. It was very interesting and fun because this practical experience was very unique and allowed us to get to know the university and the study programs before applying.”
	Jonathan Zagal Jara, liaison teacher and school psychologist “We already participated last year. This is a huge opportunity for the children. The activities and the information about tuition scholarships, admission requirements, and the alternatives for admission make it much easier for the students to enter university. There are a lot of students who think that it is impossible for them to go to university, but this activity shows them and their families that it is possible. They also did not expect to see such a huge variety of activities, which really surprised them.”
	Victoria Candia Tapia, music and arts teacher “This is a wonderful experience. We have been here before on other occasions, but it is the first time that we come to the Open House. My students were very excited to visit the different sectors of the campus. They also asked a lot of questions and it helped some of them to decide about the best study option for them. I am very grateful for this opportunity.”

Escrito por: Dirección de Comunicaciones