Last week (16/3), the Science and Education Network of Chile (REUNA), the country's academic network, announced the launch of the Telemedicine University Network (RUTE) - Chile: the first RUTE network outside Brazil in Latin America in the context of health education and research. The launch, which was broadcast live on the YouTube channel of the Science and Education Network of Chile, had the presence of RUTE-Chile's President, Dr. Angelica Avendaño; Dr. Luiz Ary Messina, responsible for Institutional Relations in Health at the National Education and Research Network (RNP); the Executive Director of REUNA, Paola Arellano; and representatives of four Universities members of the advisory committee: University of Chile, Valparaiso, Concepción y Desarrollo. Representatives of the Ministries of C&T of Brazil and Chile also participated in the meeting.

The goal of RUTE-Chile is to promote collaboration and synergy between players of national and international ecosystems to speed up training, research, and development in Digital Health, Telemedicine, and Telehealth in Chile contributing to the health and well-being of people. Through this initiative, participant entities can propose, promote and participate in the development of the network of activities, initiatives, and projects, acting in a coordinated, synergistic and collaborative, also establishing exchanges and collaboration with other entities and national and international networks that have similar goals.

"It all began with the signing of an agreement proposed by the Clara Network, which put this into motion for the Red Nacional Académica de Tecnología Avanzada (Renata- Colômbia), the Red Nacional de Investigación y Educación Ecuatoriana (Cedia-Equador), the Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet (Cudi-México), and the Red Universitaria Nacional (Reuna-Chile), and Reuna-Chile was responsible for starting this movement," said Luiz Ary Messina, responsible for Institutional Relations in Health at RNP.