British Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Email: sylviaq [AT] satlink [DOT] com
Dr. Quadrelli is a native of Buenos Aires City. While pursuing her degree in medicine, Dr. Quadrelli worked in neurophysiology doing basic science research under the tutelage of Professor Alfredo Lanari, a well respected Argentine physician-scientist and author of a widely read book called vocation and convictions in which he explored ways in which students discover their life purpose.
After a year studying in Paris, Dr. Quadrelli became enamored with pulmonary medicine, and subsequently became the protégé of Professor Aquiles Rancoroni, himself a protégé of Lanari, and recognized as a father of pulmonary medicine in Argentina. Dr. Quadrelli finished her subspecialty training at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires in 1986, where, except for a ten month break to observe and work at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, she continued to teach while at the same time setting up her private practice in several distinguished medical clinics.
Dr. Quadrelli is fluent in Spanish, French, English, and Italian; it is not surprising that humanitarian assistance at the local, regional, national, and international levels have consumed a large part of her professional life. First with Medicine Sans Frontiers, and then with Medecins du Monde, she has conducted projects in Croatia, Serbia, Zaire, Ethiopia, Somalia, Brazil, Bolivia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and Afganistan.
In 1997, Dr. Quadrelli co-founded Medicos del Mundo Argentina (Doctors of the World), of which she was President until 2003. She focused efforts in the underserved regions of Argentina, receiving a Governor’s Community Service Award from the American College of Physician’s Chest Foundation in the United States, and a Best Citizen award from Buenos Aires.
As a highly respected member of MDM’s International Committee, she was subsequently asked to go to Afghanistan early during the war and immediately after the Taliban were driven from Kabul in order to help assess logistical support, needs for international intervention, and to help plan MDM’s program of assistance there. Prior to Afghanistan, Dr. Quadrelli had spent substantial time in and around Kosovo during the NATO military intervention, serving first as a general medical doctor in the refugee camps of Montenegro, and then, after having gained hands-on experience with those peoples and cultures, designing and implementing MDM’s humanitarian interventions in Macedonia.
Immediately following the United States’ bombardment of Baghdad in 2003, Dr. Quadrelli was asked to represent MDM in Iraq and to serve as their international coordinator in an attempt to organize international collaborative assistance in that country. She also made a lengthy trip to El Salvador in order to evaluate that country’s health care system and to prepare an official report for the International Federation of Human Rights.
Most recently Dr. Quadrelli is concentrating her energies in education, the humanities, and Pulmonary Medicine. She lectures at South American conferences and continues to teach medical students and residents as Chief of training and practice at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. She has served as President of the Argentine Association for Bronchology, as well as cofounder and Vice-President of the World Bronchology Foundation, whose purpose is to provide equipment to physicians in underserved countries. She has recently served as Chief of Pulmonary Oncology in the British Hospital in Buenos Aires and Chair of the World Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology.