Alfonso de la Peña Pineda and the Urology exchange by correspondence

In 1943, the brothers Alfonso and Emilio de la Peña Pineda proposed creating a communication system by correspondence as in North America, an idea welcomed by Spanish urologists, a system that was named the Urology Exchange by Correspondence.

A thorough reading and detailed analysis was conducted of content from 1944 to 1953, with an average of 3 pages of folio size of each copy.

A total of 105 issues containing 234 urological presentations were sent, signed by 67 Spanish urologists, 2 Portuguese urologists and 1 general surgeon. Thirty-nine of these presentations were translations of a similar U.S. publication. The subject matter corresponded to curious or rare personal cases, concerning conditions or problems of the most common urological diseases in that era, of which only 20 of those articles stand out. In general, the content is of little use and interest, which prompted the gradual decline in the collaboration until it disappeared.

The proposal was answered mostly by those who had a professional relationship with the chair of Urology of the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid directed by Alfonso de la Peña. The subject matter of the personal case studies, most of which lacked importance, lead to the gradual decline in the contribution of presentations until its eventual end. Only a few articles stand out. The study's major value consists of collecting and analysing the content of what is highly likely the only complete collection in existence, given that it was not edited for printing and was distributed only as correspondence and cannot therefore be found in public libraries.