Emilio Santelices

Emilio Gabriel Santelices Cuevas (Santiago March 25, 1955) is a Chilean doctor and academic. Between March 2018 and June 2019 he served as Minister of Health of the second government of Sebastián Piñera.

Biography He is the son of César Santelices Pinto and Emilia Eliana Cuevas Gómez. He studied at the Colegio Hispano Americano. After which he studied medicine at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and specialized in cardiovascular anesthesiology and transplantation in the same university. Later, he obtained a doctorate in public health from the University of Chile, a diploma in health institution administration from the same university, and an MBA from Tulane University.

He served in various positions at the Clínica Las Condes, in addition to being an academic at the University of Chile, and chairman of the board of the Corporación Médicos para Chile.

Public life He held various positions at the Chilean Air Force Clinical Hospital, and served as an academic at the University of Chile. He was also chairman of the board of Corporación Médicos para Chile. amid controversies, including the regulation on conscientious objection under the three-grounds abortion law and issues related to his shareholdings in the information technology company Sonda. He was replaced by Jaime Mañalich.

In March 2020, he returned to the Ministry of Health as a COVID-19 advisor to the Metropolitan Central Health Service (Servicio de Salud Metropolitano Central).