PCP Bohol introduces new

‘Meet the experts’ in CPD

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 12, (PIA)—The Bohol Chapter of the Philippine College of Physicians which brought the 10th Post Graduate Course on Controversies in the Practice of Medicine has added an innovation to the gab by bringing in the experts to talk to media in hopes of bringing the health information agenda to the grassroots.

No less than Dr. Chamberlain Agtuca, HIV and AIDS Core Team at the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial medical Center in Cebu, who has been into PCP post graduate courses, said he feels excited that the Bohol team has included the “Meet the Expert” segment in the confab.

Actually, this is the first time that we have this. This is a great idea,” Dr. Agtuca told the media gathered for the mini-press conferences on Human Immune deficiency Virus – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS) at 11:00 AM and on Tuberculosis Management with World Health Organization (WHO) TB expert Dr. Yohhei Hamada at 4:00 PM.

“In the past post graduate courses, the usual practice was for the physicians of the Philippine Medical Association to learn new technologies and disease management protocols, and we keep them to instruct our patients about their physical health management and we are getting the message across, but only to our few patients,” a physician who had post graduate courses said.

“The segment allowed us to see the problem in a different perspective, especially on the much needed campaign to get HIV tested and screened for TB,” members of the local media at the press interaction bared.

Post Graduate Course Over-all Committee Chair Dr. Angelito Lechago has earlier shared the plan to make health concerns especially the technical medicinal jargon digestible to the masses and pushed for the innovation in the course so the media can also help advance the health and medical agenda.

We wish to partner with the media in bringing down effective information about health and diseases, because the media has the skills, Lechago stated.

Topics opened for media to talk with the experts include HIV stigma with Dr. Agtuca and Dilemma in TB management with Dr. Hamada.

A separate venue on the sidelines of the confab was set up for the Meet the expert.

The course, which claims 5 Professional Regulations Commission Continuing Professional Development units delved on rational antibiotics use with Dr. Bryan Albert Lim, Stigmas of HIV with Dr Agtuca, Facts and fallacies of Insulin Use with Dr Athena Marjulie Mejia, rheumatism explained with Dr. Maria Corazon Lim.

It also had “Saving lives beyond glucose lowering: the role of empagliflozin in achieving optimal survival for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus” with Dr. Mejia, updates in the management of asthma and allergic rhinitis, ARIA guidelines with Dr Aileen David-Wang.

The approach to renal calculi was with Dr. Andrew Quijano, Dilemma in TB management with Dr. Hamada, Are all chest pains cardiac? With Dr. Madeline Perocho and blood products: what and when to transfuse with Dr. Nemuel Valmoria.

Private practicing and public physicians in Bohol and even as far as Cebu attended the post grad course. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)

MUTATED HIV STRAIN. Dr Chamberlain Agtuca of VSMMC shares the media grill with Dr Wilinia Causing of GCGMH HIV Treatment Hub, after the Philippine College of Physicians led by Dr Angelito Lechago (back to camera). Agtuca said the Central Visayas kind of HIV is 70% different from the US HIV strain which entered the country in 2005. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)