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Scientific rigor, practice-based teaching and a personalized relationship, where a teacher, three students and three real model patients work closely together.
This is the basis of the One to One method of the International School of Aesthetic Medicine and Surgery (EIMEC), which was created a decade ago by doctors Zainela Laborde and Melvis Anaya, and through which more than 2,000 professionals from all over the world have already passed.
Aimed at doctors, dentists and nurses, the purpose of all training, courses and postgraduate programs is to providehigh-level training. However, it is the hours and hours of practice that make the difference in the EIMEC method. With more than 25 years dedicated to aesthetic medicine, Laborde and Anaya had identified the lack of experience and real practice with which new generations of professionals were entering the field, and they set themselves the goal of reversing this deficiency. As Dr. Paula Pifarré, EIMEC’s academic and research coordinator, explains, the school’s method is based on Dale’s learning pyramid, in which the theoretical knowledge acquired is established through real, daily practice. “When one learns in this way, or what is known as the learning by doingmethod , that is, putting a technique into action with one’s own hands, up to 80% of what is learned is retained”, summarizes Pifarré.
On the other hand, adds the expert, EIMEC works in small groups, which makes it possible to adapt the level to each student. “Although we have some courses with one or two students, the maximum number of participants per group is three, so the teacher can be one hundred percent attentive to the learning of each student, with a constant approach from the practical point of view. In other words, learning by doing,” insists Pifarré.
Dr. Napoleone teaching the practical postgraduate course in facial aesthetic medicine MEF.
Last year, as part of the institution’s sustained growth, EIMEC has consolidated new programs and international agreements with countries such as the United States, Colombia and Argentina, and has obtained various recognitions, including accreditation as a European center for quality education granted by EQAC (Education Quality Accreditation Commission), which allows European credits to be awarded to ECTS training programs.
“The EQAC accreditation allows us to guarantee that the training standards within the institution are those set by the European Union, and we are really very satisfied because it is a quite complex process, where during a period of about six months the facilities where the training will be given, the teaching staff, the accreditations and the societies to which all the members of the institution belong are evaluated -says Pifarré-. Then, each of the curricula is analyzed in terms of training hours, methodology and didactic and pedagogical resources to be implemented for each of the trainings, courses, workshops and postgraduate courses. And everything, of course, must conform to the training standards of the European Union”.
In a score ranging from 1 to 4, EIMEC has managed to get close to the highest mark, which allows the institution to maintain this accreditation for the maximum period granted, which is four years. What does it mean to have the backing of this accreditation? That instead of needing an institution behind to certify the quality of the training, we can directly award the European credits,” Pifarré proudly summarizes. In other words, any training that a student takes at EIMEC, and that complies with the 15 hours of training required and 10 hours of learning, will obtain its corresponding credit”.
An example: for the postgraduate expert course, and according to the number of training hours, 30 European credits are obtained. “Our one-week course, which is 40 hours of practical training plus all the theoretical training, is equivalent to four European credits. And then we have an agreement with CIDESID and the University of Buenos Aires, which is a six-month program that awards six European credits,” adds Pifarré. In addition, EQAC has an agreement with the United States, which means that the credits certified by EIMEC -as an accredited institution- can also be recognized in the United States”.
CEMEF23 postgraduate student with her diploma.
EIMEC’s team is mainly made up of physicians. There are a total of 22 professionals of which -within the training area- there are aesthetic doctors who originally come from different specialties. “We have a cardiovascular surgeon, a family doctor and several doctors who have done acupuncture and then trained in aesthetic medicine. But there is also a group of scientists who are part of the teaching team, and we also have collaborators who are professors at the University of Buenos Aires, in Argentina, collaborators who are professors at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, international collaborators from Peru, Brazil and Chile,” says Pifarré, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Within the EIMEC staff, internationalization enriches the collaborative work, and it is also the diversity of the teaching team – with Italian, Spanish, Cuban, Brazilian, Mexican, Argentinean, Dominican Republic and United States doctors – a feature that drives EIMEC to always be at the forefront of new techniques and treatments in aesthetic medicine. International speakers representing the major companies and laboratories in the market are also part of the academic and teaching team.
Every year, about 200 Latin American doctors and dentists are also trained at EIMEC, and many of them become reference names not only in their country but also in the region. The list is long, but a few examples are enough, such as Mexican doctors Randall Herrero and Julieta Zárate, who today runs her own training school. “Among the staff is Dr. Beth Carrasco, in Colombia, a very powerful specialist who trained with us. Also Dr. Alicia Tamayo, from Cuba, head of Aesthetic Surgery at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Havana,” adds Pifarré, and emphasizes a peculiar condition that defines, perhaps in a transversal way, not only the teaching work but also that of all the professionals who make up the staff.
Students in EIMEC.
“The generosity of the teachers. When a doctor comes to train at EIMEC, he not only acquires knowledge and adds practice hours, he gains a tutor who will be there to support him whenever he needs it. Our philosophy is to share knowledge. We are not stingy with knowledge. When a doctor comes to our classrooms, the teachers teach him everything they know, no data, no tricks, no details are kept so that they are not more successful. Quite the contrary. We are proud that the professionals who trained with us stand out. We love that they are the top top in their country and that everyone wants to imitate them and follow in their footsteps. That means that we have been generous with knowledge. A characteristic that is not so easy to find these days”.
