Senate recognizes the career of Elbi Morla, a pioneer of pediatric endocrinology in the Dominican Republic

The INTEC research professor has dedicated more than five decades to medicine, teaching and research, and has been a teacher to generations of health professionals

SANTO DOMINGO – The Senate of the Republic recognized the pediatric endocrinologist, Elbi Eulogio Morla Báez, professor and researcher of Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), for its extraordinary contributions to medicine, teaching, scientific research and the development of pediatric endocrinology in the Dominican Republic.

The award was presented by the President of the Senate, Ricardo de los Santos, and the senator for the province of Azua, Lía Díaz, who proposed the resolution, during a ceremony held in the Eduardo Estrella auditorium, in which the career of the Dominican doctor and philanthropist Ramón Modesto Tallaj was also recognized.

The resolution, issued on July 10, 2026, highlights that Morla Báez, born on January 1, 1950 in Santo Domingo, has dedicated more than five decades to the practice of medicine, university teaching, scientific research and the ethical training of generations of health professionals.

The document also highlights his status as the first pediatric endocrinologist established in the Dominican Republic, and as a pioneer in this specialty, he laid the foundations for the development of pediatric endocrinology in the country.

For more than five decades, Morla Báez has carried out a fruitful teaching career, especially in the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), where he has served as a tenured professor of Pediatrics and contributed to the training of generations of physicians. He also served as editor of the university's scientific journal, Science and Health.

In 2011, he was recognized as a Master of Dominican Medicine by the Dominican Medical Association (CMD), a Master of Pediatrics by the Dominican Society of Pediatrics, and a Master of Pediatric Endocrinology by the Dominican Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and the Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition. He is a full member of the Dominican Republic Academy of Sciences and received the National Medicine Award in 2022.

A life dedicated to children

In explaining the resolution, Senator Lía Díaz highlighted that Morla Báez's career transcends the practice of medicine, combining patient care with teaching, research, and social commitment.

“Being a doctor also means teaching, researching, serving and supporting, especially contributing to the life and future of our children and adolescents,” the legislator stated.

Díaz highlighted that the specialist has been a teacher to generations and has transmitted from university classrooms and hospitals not only medical knowledge, but also principles of ethics, responsibility and human sensitivity.

He also valued her contributions to scientific associations, her publications and books, and her participation in national and international medical societies, as well as her commitment to children in the most vulnerable conditions.

“Titles distinguish, recognitions honor, positions come and go, but the lives we help transform remain,” the senator said, almost to the point of tears.

From difficulties in hospitals to national coverage

In accepting the award, Morla Báez recalled his origins in Villa Consuelo and his education entirely within the public education system, as well as his time at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and the Robert Reid Cabral Children's Hospital, an institution to which, he explained, he has dedicated a large part of his professional life.

The specialist recounted the difficulties faced decades ago by children with diabetes who arrived at public hospitals, to the point that sometimes there was no insulin available to treat them.

“From a seriously ill child arriving in an acid-diabetic situation and there being no insulin to treat him, to doing a collection among the students (...) or taking the credit card and telling a student: 'Run to the first pharmacy and get the insulin',” he recalled.

He explained that, subsequently, the problem continued for many families, because, although the children received hospital care, they left with prescriptions that their parents did not have the resources to buy.

Faced with this reality, Morla Báez, along with other professionals, spearheaded the creation of the Diabetic Medication Program (Promedia) approximately 25 years ago. However, he noted that the initial coverage was insufficient given the growing number of children and adolescents with diabetes.

From then on, he embarked on a nearly two-decade-long struggle to ensure that diabetic children and teenagers across the country could access insulin, glucometers, and glucose test strips.

The doctor attributed the universal availability of these supplies to the support received during the current government administration, after a communication addressed to President Luis Abinader resulted in instructions to health authorities to ensure that no child would be left without the necessary treatment.

“We managed to make it universal so that no one was left behind. We have around 2,000 children with diabetes. And the number is growing,” he stated.

As he explained, the coverage extends through public hospitals, People's Pharmacies and Primary Care Units.

Towards a new stage in the treatment of childhood diabetes

Morla Báez also announced that the country is heading towards a new stage in the care of children and adolescents with diabetes, with the incorporation of continuous glucose sensors or monitors, devices that allow glucose levels to be measured without the need for multiple finger pricks during the day.

The specialist considered that Dominican children should have access to the same advances available in other countries of the region and highlighted that the Dominican Republic has health programs that are benchmarks in the Latin American field.

“I believe so, that we can, that we have received support in this administration and we are fully grateful,” he said.

The career recognized by the Senate thus reflects a professional career in which medicine, teaching and research have been accompanied by a constant concern for expanding access for the child population to specialized services and treatments.

Morla Báez was accompanied by the dean of the Health Sciences Area of ​​INTEC, Miguel Robiou, and Dr. Rosario Almánzar, a professor at the university.