The demographic shift was only part of the story.
Entre un censo y el siguiente, la Araucanía envejeció más rápido de lo que supo prepararse: la proporción de mayores de 65 años pasó de 11,2% a 14% en apenas siete años, y ese número silencioso exige ahora una respuesta que el sistema de salud aún está aprendiendo a dar. En junio de 2026, clínicos, académicos y estudiantes se reunieron en la Universidad Católica de Temuco no para celebrar un logro, sino para reconocer una deuda pendiente con quienes envejecen en la región. Es el momento en que una sociedad mira su propio futuro y decide si está dispuesta a construirlo con dignidad.
- El salto demográfico no fue gradual sino acelerado: en siete años la región sumó casi tres puntos porcentuales de población mayor, desbordando la capacidad de respuesta del sistema sanitario actual.
- Las enfermedades crónicas —diabetes, hipertensión, deterioro cognitivo— se han convertido en la carga dominante, y no se resuelven con intervenciones rápidas sino con cuidado sostenido, coordinado y culturalmente sensible.
- La cumbre en la UCT reunió a un ecosistema fragmentado —hospitales, universidades, estudiantes, ministerio— para intentar construir una red intersectorial que reemplace el trabajo en silos.
- Un ensayo clínico con Estimulación Magnética Transcraneal mostró remisión casi total de síntomas en el 98,7% de 78 mujeres con fibromialgia, abriendo una ventana hacia la medicina de precisión para adultos mayores.
- La región no llegó a la cumbre con soluciones, sino con la conciencia de que el viejo manual ya no sirve y de que el tiempo para reescribirlo se acorta con cada nuevo censo.
Los números del censo llegaron como una alarma silenciosa. Entre 2017 y 2024, la proporción de personas mayores de 65 años en la Araucanía subió de 11,2% a 14%: una cifra que parece modesta hasta que se traduce en una realidad concreta: el sistema de salud de la región envejece más rápido de lo que aprende a cuidar a quienes envejecen.
A comienzos de junio, la Universidad Católica de Temuco convocó una cumbre regional para enfrentar esa realidad. El vicedecano de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Dr. Gustavo Medina, abrió el encuentro nombrando el desafío sin rodeos: formar profesionales capaces de responder a las metas ministeriales implica preparar a una generación para un futuro en que los adultos mayores demandarán una atención que la fuerza laboral actual no alcanza a proveer. Andrea Matus, coordinadora del Programa de Salud Integral del Adulto Mayor, subrayó que el trabajo real de la cumbre era fortalecer las competencias de los equipos ya en terreno —enfermeras, médicos, terapeutas, trabajadores sociales— y convertir el encuentro en un nodo de una red intersectorial más coherente.
El Dr. Juan Carlos Coronado expuso la transición epidemiológica que acompaña al cambio demográfico: las enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles son hoy la carga sanitaria dominante, y exigen cuidado sostenido, atención al entorno y respeto por los contextos culturales. Junto a la Dra. Lidia Castillo, de la Universidad Andrés Bello, propuso un marco de política estatal que desmantele el edadismo, integre la salud ambiental, reduzca la brecha digital y reconozca las cosmovisiones indígenas y comunitarias.
Entre las herramientas emergentes presentadas destacó la Estimulación Magnética Transcraneal, estudiada en la Universidad Santo Tomás por el Dr. Norman López. Su ensayo clínico, realizado con dos hospitales regionales, aplicó la técnica a pacientes con fibromialgia: en un grupo de 78 mujeres, diez sesiones de estimulación inhibitoria produjeron remisión casi completa de síntomas en el 98,7% de los casos, sin efectos adversos reportados.
La cumbre no fue una solución. Fue el momento en que la región miró la escala de lo que viene y comenzó, con honestidad, a preguntarse cómo cambiar.
The census numbers arrived like a quiet alarm. Between 2017 and 2024, the proportion of people over 65 in Araucanía had climbed from 11.2 percent to 14 percent—a shift that sounded modest in percentage points but meant something urgent in practice: the region's health system was aging faster than it was preparing to care for the aging.
In early June, the Universidad Católica de Temuco convened a regional summit to confront the reality. Clinicians, academics, and students gathered to retool their approaches to elderly care, to align themselves with new ministerial directives, and to share what the territory was actually teaching them. The meeting was framed as a technical update, but the subtext was plain: the old playbook no longer fit.
Dr. Gustavo Medina, the vice dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT, opened the gathering by naming the core challenge plainly. Training students to meet the ministry's targets meant preparing them for a demographic future in which older adults would require far more professional attention than the current workforce could provide. It was not a problem that would solve itself. It required deliberate, sustained effort to build capacity.
Andrea Matus, who coordinates the Comprehensive Health Program for Older Adults, emphasized that the summit's real work lay in strengthening the competencies of the health teams already in the field—nurses, doctors, therapists, social workers—alongside the educators and students who would eventually join them. The gathering was designed as a node in a larger intersectoral network, a place where the siloed work of hospitals and universities could become something more coherent.
Dr. Juan Carlos Coronado, director of the Department of Therapeutic Processes at UCT's health faculty, walked through the epidemiological transition facing the region. The demographic shift was only part of the story. Alongside it came a change in disease patterns: chronic, non-communicable illnesses—diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, cognitive decline—were now the dominant health burden. These were not conditions that resolved quickly or cleanly. They required sustained, coordinated care, attention to lifestyle, and respect for the cultural contexts in which people lived. Coronado and his colleague Dr. Lidia Castillo from Andrés Bello University proposed a state-level policy framework that would dismantle ageist assumptions, integrate environmental health considerations, narrow the digital divide, and honor indigenous and community worldviews.
Among the emerging tools being tested was Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, or TMS—a non-invasive neurological intervention being studied at Santo Tomás University by Dr. Norman López. His team had been running a clinical trial in coordination with two regional hospitals, applying the technique to patients with chronic neurological conditions, particularly fibromyalgia. The preliminary results were striking: in a group of 78 women, ten sessions of inhibitory stimulation produced near-complete symptom remission in 98.7 percent of cases, with no adverse effects reported. It was a small window into what precision medicine might offer to older adults living with conditions that had previously offered little relief.
The summit itself was a signal that the region understood the scale of what lay ahead. The elderly population would continue to grow. The diseases they carried would not disappear. The workforce needed to expand, to retrain, to think differently about what aging meant and what older people deserved. The meeting was not a solution. It was a beginning—a moment when the region's health system acknowledged that it had to change, and started to ask how.
Citações Notáveis
The increase in the elderly population will require many professionals capable of providing coverage to older adults— Dr. Gustavo Medina, vice dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCT
We are facing an important demographic change, with the 2024 census showing the population over 65 increased to 14% compared to 11.2% in 2017— Dr. Juan Carlos Coronado, director of the Department of Therapeutic Processes at UCT
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did the census number—14 percent—trigger this particular gathering now, rather than earlier or later?
Because it crossed a threshold that made the old approach untenable. At 11 percent, you could still absorb the elderly into existing systems. At 14 percent, you can't. The region had to stop planning incrementally and start planning structurally.
What does it mean that they brought students into the room alongside practicing clinicians?
It means they're trying to prevent a lag. If you wait until students graduate to teach them about elderly care, you've already lost years. By bringing them in now, while they're still forming their understanding of what medicine is, you're building a workforce that assumes older adults are central to the work, not peripheral.
The TMS results sound almost too good to be true—98.7 percent effectiveness with no side effects. Why isn't this already standard treatment?
Because it's new, it requires equipment and training, and it hasn't been tested at scale yet. What they showed was proof of concept in a controlled setting. Rolling it out across a region requires infrastructure, funding, and evidence from larger populations. It's promising, but it's not yet routine.
What's the connection between ageism and digital equity that Coronado mentioned?
Older adults are often excluded from digital systems—banking, health records, communication platforms. If you don't address that gap, you're not just leaving them behind; you're making it harder for them to access the care they need. An integrated approach means fixing both the attitudes and the infrastructure.
Is this summit a one-time event or the start of something ongoing?
It's framed as part of a larger intersectoral network, which suggests continuity. But whether it actually becomes sustained depends on whether institutions keep showing up and whether the ministry backs it with resources. The gathering itself is a commitment; what comes after is the real test.