The Freudian Slip Of A Bacolodnon

One cannot simply teach Primary health care to medical students. The students have to learn it by doing. Every year I handle the Primary Health care subject/discussion with the third year medical students. And of course after discussing the theories, they get to immerse themselves with their chosen partner communities to see how they can bring Primary health care to them. So, every where, the third year medical students of the University of Saint La Salle would brainstorm projects that they can collaborate with their partner communities that not only would provide them the experience that would help them understand Primary health care but will actually bring PHC to their partner communities. They are expected to collaborate, work with all kinds of stakeholders, be conscious of different factors that need to be addressed in order to solve or confront a medical problem, and engage the community helping them realize their own empowerment. Instead of a written monthly progress report, th...

I have been teaching the concept of Primary Health Care to medical students and traditionally I would ask them to partner with a selected community where they can apply what they have learned. This year is unique because instead of asking them to submit written reports of their progress, I asked them to produce a youtube channel instead where they submit their progress reports in the form of vlogs. Here are just some of the selected vlogs. You can subscribe to them so you too can follow their journey. You can subscribe to Project Kabo here . You can subscribe to the Dengurls and Kulamboys Vlog here Follow the Head PoLice Here . Learn more about Project Aspire here .   Follow the story of the LarryBirds here .  Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

Every year, I always challenge my first year medical students in my Family and Community Medicine class to apply what they have learned in our discussion on Illness trajectories and how families and even communities deal with these illnesses. Of course, they do it in a form of a mini-film. Almost 10 years ago, the #Cinemedicine was born and for #Cinemedicine2020, the following are the entries of the MD-1 of USLS College of Medicine Entries to the Cinemedicine2020 Kung Tani Pa, Ma, Landong Losing Breath Pa-uli Unattended I Made It, Ma Quick survey maker Don't forget to use the hashtag #cinemedicine2020 if you want to share the link to this page. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

I used to love Foodpanda. The first time I learned about the concept I was so sold with it. Imagine accessing different restaurants without having to leave your house. You can look at their menus and decide from the comforts of your home. And once you have made your choice you can make your order and it will be delivered to you in no time. I have been utilizing this app for a long time and believe me it is not a perfect app and it has yet to really improve on its services. There are delays at times but most of the time it is not the fault of Foodpanda. I had other worse experiences with Foodpanda. The last time when the rider did not deliver a complete delivery. So I had to wait for my complete meal to be delivered and it took more than an hour to make the full and complete delivery. It was definitely frustrating, not only the delay but how the problem was handled by Foodpanda.  Because of that, I deleted the app and decided not to use it again. Until yesterday when I decide...

It is that time of the year when my First year med students in my Family and Community Medicine class submit entries for bragging rights in my traditional Cinemedicine Project. The aim of the project is for the med students to highlight specific illnesses and portray its impact on the individual and the family and if possible to the community as well. This year majority of the entries dealt with mental health and social illnesses. As a viewer you can choose which one of them is the best by answering the poll below. Each team has corresponding points depending on the results of the poll. WARNING: some of the entries deal with very sensitive topics for matured audiences only.

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is the inflammation of the brain due to a the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). This virus is related to Dengue Virus and just like the Dengue virus it is also spread through mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organization  the case-fatality rate among those with encephalitis can be as high as 30%. Permanent neurologic damage or    psychiatric sequelae can occur in 30%–50% of those with encephalitis. As of this moment, there is still no cure for this disease. So, it is better to avoid getting this disease.  Since it is vector-borne, which means, it requires an insect or another animal (vector) to transmit the disease, the best way to avoid or even eliminate the disease is to do vector control or eradication. If communities can be helped to improve sanitation to destroy breeding places of these mosquitoes that can carry the virus or establish protective barriers against mosquitoes such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets in eve...

Since its discovery when Edward Jenner made the first inoculation of cowpox in 1796, vaccines have come a long way. It has been regarded as still the cheapest most effective way of health prevention especially against "immunizable" infectious diseases. Many lives have been saved because of vaccines. However, as our understanding of medicine and health continue to evolve, production of vaccines and access to them continue to be confronted with a lot of challenges. There are still some parts of the world where we have failed to eradicate some "immunizable" diseases. And the erroneous claims that vaccines lead to development of autism did not help either. In developing countries, access to vaccines continue to be a challenge and a priority. Under the Expanded Program of Immunization of the World Health Organization, every child before he/she reaches the age of 1 year old must receive a prescribe set of vaccines that can help prevent the acquiring of common infectious d...

I was told that the graduation of my alma mater College of Medicine will be this Saturday. Let me share my insights to the graduating medical students after 10 years of being a medical doctor myself, a neophyte compared to the giants of this vocation. The adventure does not stop in your graduation. This is only a step closer to the realization of a dream, a bigger dream. A dream within a dream. The diploma only marks a milestone in your life. It only certifies the end of a phase. The demand for sacrifices will still continue and the pressure and stress will still linger. Remember that the way to doctor-hood is the footprints of humility and sacrifice. Ego would have only distracted you from your journey towards becoming a doctor. You have to literally crawl on your knees to get your way to this reality: a graduate of Med School. And if you think you will now stand erect like an evolving primate to homo erectus, think again. Being a doctor, a physician, will continue to be difficult. It...

Every year, I ask my first year med students under my Family and Community Medicine class to come up with a mini-film that would depict a family's journey and experience when one of the family member is ill. It is part of our discussion on Family Illness trajectory. Since I've been doing it, it has been called Cinemedicine. The following are now the entries for Cinemedicine 2017: Feel free to watch and share with friends. Talk about your favorite entry on twitter using their hashtags #cinemedicine2017 #hiraya #kontak #cinco #alma #marionette Hiraya Kontak Cinco Alma Marionette Now, viewers can choose the best film here. A percentage of the over-all score is for the Viewer's Choice. Poll is now open. It will close on January 9, 2016 6pm Manila Time. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

I am currently waiting for the second Presidential debate, I am thinking of how the next Administration should address the health challenges of the country. The facts are clear, our country still has to really achieve high performance in Immunization coverage, improve services in maternal and child health and address access to safe drinking water and sanitation. So, if given the choice, based on my experience as a former Doctor to the Barrios and working with more than 72 local government units and their municipal health offices, I want the next President to focus on the following items, from the most immediate to long-term: 1. Genuine Universal Health Care - the keyword here is genuine. The Aquino administration pushed for Kalusugang Pangkahalatan and although there have been gains it is not really Universal as what the current administration would like to believe. Universal Healthcare implies basic and essential health services are made available for everyone . And I mean everyon...

As a professor in medical school teaching Family and Community Medicine, one of my topics is to teach Primary Health Care. I would usually discuss the Alma Ata Declaration Document with the class and discuss historical and current events related to Primary Health Care in the Philippine experience. But I have always felt that the best way to teach Primary Health Care is to let the students experience it for themselves so for the past two years, I have been challenging my third year med students to come up with a community project with a partner "community" of choice where they would come up with a project for the community, particularly one that addresses a health issue. The objective is for them to practice the principles on PHC that they have learned in school. They would write a monthly progress report about what they have done. As a final output they would come up with a video documentary that would describe their project and experience. For this year, I had these amazi...

Nowadays, we hear more often about pursuing one's passion at work and career. Especially in my kind of work where we are supposed to do the "impossible" that passion has become a key word and ingredient in driving the internal motivation to pursue the almost unachievable. Passion is such a big word and its true essence is sometimes hardly noticed. It comes from the Latin word passio which means "to suffer" or "to endure". So your passion is something you are willing to endure for or suffer. It is something that you are willing to do even if it hurts. Its oldest root word "pei" literally means "to hurt". And it is usually referred to the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. In other words, me ganung level ang "passion" yung handa kang magpakamatay . Pag hindi ka nasasaktan, hindi yan passion. Whether your passion is a person, a relationship or an advocacy or issue or set of values and beliefs, you are willing to offer you ...

The results of this year's USLS COM FCM-1 Cinemedicine2016 have been revealed today. I couldn't have been prouder of the outputs of the students. Since 2012, first year med students of USLS College of Medicine would produce minifilms as part of their requirements under my class in Family and Community Medicine, and the films usually highlight the illness experience of the family and the patient and the role of the health care professional along the illness trajectory. This year I would say the FCM-1 set the bar higher producing high quality films. Results: Best Actress - Erica Aragon of Recall Best Actor - Mark Senoron of Marked Best Screenplay - Marked Best Production - Marked Best Editing - Recall Best Film - Marked Marked also got the highest online poll votes. MOre than 10,000 votes were casted this year online and Marked got at least 33% of the votes. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not se...

My work provides me with the opportunity to work with frontliners in the Philippine public health system. Being from the frontlines myself (former Doctor to the Barrios), a lot of lessons learned can be shared by those who are literally on the ground, insights which neither the academe can fully teach nor policy makers can fully understand. Lately I visited Looc, Romblon, the current Mayor and MUnicipal Health Officer were my former "students" under the Municipal Leadership and Governance Program of ZFF in collaboration with the University of Makati. They continued their partnership with ZFF under the "alumni program" which is officially known as the "Continuining Leadership in Health and Development Program". participants under the CLHDP discuss issues beyond health and would look at health challenges through different lenses of social determinants such as education and livelihood. Mayor Leila was generous enough with her time when I asked her if I could...

As per tradition, this year's First year med students of University of Saint La Salle College of Medicine have produced their own set of cinemedicine films highlighting various illnesses and telling the story of how family members and the patients undergo the illness experience. Here are the entries: (https://youtu.be/h_l14cP2_Nw) https://youtu.be/ZWrtoWQsfug (https://youtu.be/FTOw7Gdmljo) (https://youtu.be/VAJM08hidBU) Polls Closed: Best Film is Marked based on judges scores and online polls. Like it? Share it. Get the Share on Facebook widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Not seeing a widget? ( More info )Like it.

UPDATE: China is the host for the FIBA World Cup 2019. In a few minutes, the Philippine delegation, led by sports patron, philanthropist and businessman Manny Pangilingan, will make its bid to host the FIBA World Cup this 2019. The country's main competitor in the bid is China. Here's why I think the Philippines should host (again) the World Cup of Basketball: 1. Filipinos are crazy for basketball No other race in the entire Universe is basketball-crazy more than the Filipinos. Since the Americans taught us how to play this sport, the Filipinos got hooked to the game. We never let go of it. 2. There is a basketball "court" in almost every street in the Philippines . Even in the most unexpected places you would see an improvised basketball ring with guys and even girls playing hoops.  3. Even in the worse of times, Filipinos never stop playing basketball . It is definitely a national past-time. Need I even dare to venture and say a "national...

This morning I got my facebook newsfeed swamped with links to what appears to be a column written by a Ms. Fely Villoria Sicam. The title of her article "Are resident doctors really doctors?" intrigued me so I had to read it for myself, but not before reading some of the comments made already by many who would share the link. Apparently, the article was yet another criticism to a certain sector of fellow health care practitioners. Further reading of the article would reveal that the criticism was directed more to the doctors and nurses working in government hospitals. At first glance I thought it was too stupid an article it has to be ignored. However, I tried to suspend my judgment and gave it another look. This article appeared to be inspired by a personal experience of an author's friend, narrating how this patient allegedly was not taken good care of while at an Emergency Room of a government-owned hospital. Apparently, the experience was not memorable and the interac...

I currently teach Family and Community Medicine for the University of Saint La Salle College of Medicine and I handle the lecture on "History of Public Health". After discussing the milestones in public health both from a global and national perspective, I asked my first year med students if they are aware of existing Public health programs of the government. It then gave me an idea for their first project. Divided into four groups, I asked them to come up with a video that would describe an existing Public Health Program of their choice. The idea is to have a one-shot video supposedly to highlight the process a patient would go through if they were to avail of the services under a specific health program. Here are the four videos they sent. Hope you enjoy them: Video on Family Planning Video on HIV/AIDS Video on Smoking Cessation Video on Essential Intrapartum and Newborn Care Which of the four videos do you like? Like it? Share it. Get the Share on...