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Previously Published on March 2, 2005
ALT website
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In a message dated 2/26/05 7:19:04 AM Pacific Standard Time,
rosigs2003@yahoo.com writes:
rosigs2003@yahoo.com writes:
Most doctors and well off people here in Minnesota
would rather buy a
home in warmer climate (say
Florida) than invest in the Philippines because
of
terrible healthcare.
Thank you very much, JR, for sharing your medical "adventures" in the
Philippines and for your triumph over blindness. My fraternity brod, Jay
Caedo, lost his sight due to diabetes, in spite of the fact that his dad is
one of the best medical doctors in the Philippines. I guess one cannot change
fate or for that matter, destiny even with the best medical people in
attendance.
We are aware of the terrible situation the healthcare
industry of the Philippines is suffering from. As I said in my essay, the
Philippines -- in spite of being one of the world's leading suppliers of
nurses, physicians and medical professionals -- has "the Mona Lisa" syndrome
(to quote again Princess Emraida Kiram) as the Number-One cause of death, that
is, preventable death.
I have written this series of articles about
Reinventing the Philippine healthcare and hospital industry but I guess that
the vested interests do not want true structural reforms to happen in the
country.
We are aware of the need for state-of-the-art health
facilities and trained personnel. This is why part of our plans of building an
international airport in Sorsogon Province is the need to put up an
ultramodern medical center adjacent to the site.
And speaking of
medical centers, did you know that the first real medical center of the United
States was actually built in Manila at the turn of the 20th century? A medical
center, by definition, has to have a hospital, a school of medicine and a
research-and-development (R&D) facility. The Americans did that by
organizing the Philippine General Hospital, the UP College of Medicine and
what became the National Science Research Institute in Ermita, Manila, in the
early 1900s.
My colleague in the Philippine History Group of Los
Angeles, Frank Quismorio, Jr., MD, gave a lecture to us about this historic
first medical center in the Philippines, as a colony of the United States. Dr.
Quismorio, who teaches medicine at USC Medical School, told us also of the
Filipino version of the medical research that went awry in Tuskegee, Alabama
(for which then President Clinton apologized to the Black-American victims of
the research gone bad). Hopefully we may be able to publish Dr. Quismorio's
research on these matters on time for the Kalayaan 2006 celebrations in
Southern CA, under my chairmanship.
Perhaps if we can motivate all the
Quismorios, the Kirams, the Navarras, the Torreses, the Delfins and all the
other well-meaning Filipino Americans in the United States -- from sea to
shining sea, including the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota and beyond the Midwest --
to pool their resources, we can still have that day when even the poor folks
in the Philippines may be able to smile like Mona Lisa and not die needlessly
from the "Mona Lisa" syndrome.
Mabuhay,
Bobby M.
Reyes
PS: To those who just tuned in to this thread, I tried to
initiate a discussion of the Philippines' medical and healthcare industries by
writing a series of columns. Here's one (written in April 2004) that featured
Princess Emraida Kiram and Joseph Lariosa and my trip to Chicago. Click here:
PinoyOnBoard.com - The Philippines: A Land of Mona Lisas and Picasso-like
Politicians or copy and paste to your browser
http://www.pinoyonboard.com/2004/0411_reinvent.html
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Visit
the www.bobbyreyes.com and the "Daily B.R.E.A.D." in the www.PinoyOnBoard.com.
Listen to the "Mabuhay, Las Vegas" talk show on Saturdays @ 8:00 p.m. at
Station KRLV 1340 AM on your radio dial in Southern Nevada.
Very interesting article.
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