Santiago - Fernanda Calvo
August 6, 2026
IPTOP Member Country Representative from The Netherlands, Dennis Boer, recently combined a holiday in Santiago, Chile with a visit that the wider physiotherapy community will find genuinely inspiring.
He spent time with Fernanda Calvo, physiotherapist, lecturer at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and part of the team that won the IPTOP World PT Day 2025 video competition for their work on healthy aging.
What Dennis found was a faculty where the integration of education, clinical practice, and research into healthy ageing is not an aspiration, it is the operational reality. Current research focuses include community-based group exercise programs for older adults, fall risk assessment and prevention, and the diagnosis and prevention of muscle loss during hospital admission. The university has also recently launched a dedicated Master’s program in Healthy Ageing, a timely response to the demographic realities facing Chile and the world.
It is exactly the kind of global exchange of knowledge and practice that IPTOP hopes to facilitate, and a reminder that outstanding work for older people is happening in every corner of the world.
Dennis’ complete write up will be in the upcoming IPTOP newsletter which is available to all IPTOP members.
