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Cebu Institute of Medicine
May 2008
Producing Physicians with a Heart...
Beginnings
In 1956, three doctors felt an urgent need for a strong and progressive school
of medicine in the City of Cebu to accommodate deserving students who could
not pursue medical education elsewhere.
The idea of the three doctors was enthusiastically received and sustained by
Dr. Jacinto Velez. In a series of brainstorming meetings, an organization plan
was established and a corporation was formed with the following as
incorporators: Dr. and Mrs Jacinto Velez, Dr. Eugenio Alonso Dr. Benito
Antigua, Dr. Uldarico Bacay, Dr. Nicolas Escario, Dr. Renato Espinosa and Dr.
Jose Tolentino.
An affiliation with the Cebu Institute of Technology was effected with the
approval of its president Dr. Nicolas Escario, a friend and classmate of Dr.
Velez. Hence, an application for the opening of the future Cebu Institute of
Technology College of Medicine was submitted on January 31, 1957 with the
Bureau of Private Education.
Construction was started at the back of the then Velez Clinic for classrooms,
laboratories and offices. Laboratory and library facilities were acquired,
cadavers were obtained, and efforts to recruit the medical faculty from local
physicians were made. With the help of Dr. Virgilio Ramos, then dean of UST
College of Medicine and former classmate of Dr. Velez, two members of the UST
faculty were convinced to migrate to Cebu -- Dr. Fernando Santos
(Biochemistry) and Dr. Manuel Alvarez (Physiology and Pharmacology) together
with their technicians.
On June 10, 1957, the CIT College of Medicine opened its doors to 47 first
year students, 33 of whom graduated in 1962 to compose the CIM pioneer class
in the five year curriculum.
Dr. Uldarico C. Bacay assumed the deanship of the Cebu Institute of Medicine
after Dr. Jacinto Velez, Sr. became the president of CIM. Dr. Eugenio Alonso
became the dean in 1971, followed by Dr. Constancio Camomot in 1975, Dr. Jose
Paradela in 1976, and Dr. Josefina L. Poblete as the present dean.
Evolution of the Cebu Institute of Medicine
In 1966, with the establishment of Velez College, the CIT-College of Medicine
terminated its affiliation with the Cebu Institute of Technology to become a
sister institution of Velez College. It was converted into a non-stock,
non-profit corporation, and became the Cebu Institute of Medicine
headquartered in a five-story edifice at the corner of F. Ramos and V. Ranudo
Sts.
The optimism, desire and enthusiasm of the group centered on these objectives:
(1) To provide the undergraduates a firm basic education in medicine and to
foster habits of scholarship and academic excellence; (2) To contribute to the
advancement of knowledge through research; and (3) To assist in the
development of teachers, investigators, and practitioners, both urban and
rural, through programs of graduate education including residency training.
To further promote these aims the school joined the Association of Philippine
Medical Colleges, assisting in the improvement and upgrading of the medical
education in the country. The Faculty of Instruction also increased so as to
cope with the growing number of students. And a program for training the
school’s graduates for faculty positions and hospital residencies was
strengthened.
In SY 1968 -69, CIM shifted to a four-year curriculum, integrating some
clinical courses and shortening the internship program.
Cebu (Velez) General Hospital (CVGH), CIM’s main teaching hospital, became one
of the biggest private hospitals outside Manila at this time. Practically all
patients admitted were and still are teaching cases, except for a few private
patients who insisted on strict privacy. Thus, the chairs of the departments
of the CIM are concurrently the chairs of the departments of CVGH and the Dean
of the Cebu Institute of Medicine is the Medical Director of CVGH, the
teaching hospital. This facilitates the coordination of the education and
training of the medical students.
Cebu Institute of Medicine-Community Medico-Social Services (CIM-CMSS)
The year 1967 saw the establishment of the Cebu Institute of Medicine -
Community Medico-Social Services in the barrio of Pakna-an, Mandaue City to
provide a training center and field laboratory for the community-oriented
activities of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine.
The Community Medicine Program of CIM was original idea of Dr. Florentino
Solon who was then in the Regional Health Office of Region 7 in Cebu and the
chairman of the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine of CIM.
Exploratory talks were done with the barangay and local school officials and
the CIM administration and they agreed on how the program would be
implemented. Thus the Cebu Institute of Medicine, Community Medico-Social
Services was born, directed towards identifying community health problems and
formulating solutions to these problems while providing community health
services. In the process, it would also teach both students and physicians how
to deal with these problems and provide training for the medical students
during their internship for public health in the areas of service and
research.
This rural internship project has the distinct honor of being the first and
the best among the medical schools in the country. The popularity of the
program has been highlighted in many positive reports and comments from both
national and international personalities who have come to visit and observe
its many innovative health activities.
Aware of the present health needs of the country and realizing the importance
of the general practitioners as providers of health care, the Department of
Preventive and Social Medicine of CIM decided to establish the Residency
Training in Family and Community Medicine in 1972, the first among the medical
schools in the country. The establishment of the Residency Training was
envisioned to provide a harmonious union between clinical, family and
community medicine.
In July 2004, CIM received the Master TB Educators Grant from Philtips,
administered by the Department of Family & Community Medicine. The CIM-CMSS is
also now an accredited DOTS Center accredited by PhilCAT and Philhealth. It is
a Philheath accredited facility for Maternity Services as well. Thus, this
type of primary medical care facility is also meant to demonstrate to the
student how to establish a clinic facility in a community and the needed
equipment and the accreditations that can be obtained. This will be of great
value for the students when they intend to go home to their communities to
practice after their training.
The Quest for Excellence
CIM’s quest for excellence can be traced back from its very inception as
exemplified by its stated vision: Physician with a Heart; and its mission: To
produce graduates who are professionally competent, socially concerned and
guided by a correct conscience in all their actions. Founded on this notable
intent, CIM has steadily advanced to a heightened excellence in medical
education.
The fourth decade (1987-1997) in CIM’s history is highlighted by its elevation
to the highest category for medical schools, Level IV, by the Board of Medical
Education on February 16, 1987, connoting CIM as a medical institution of high
quality with exemplary performance.
Another distinctive phenomenon of this era was the announcement by the
Commission of Higher Education (CHED) in 1996 that CIM had been singled out as
one of the three Centers of Excellence for medicine nationwide. It earned the
distinction of being the only Center of Excellence for the entire Visayas and
Mindanao. An important consequence of this is entrusting CIM with a lead role
in upgrading medical education in the region. CIM’s response to this challenge
can be seen in its offering of different short courses and trainings to
medical practitioners in the region.
One more milestone of prominence that marked this era was the establishment of
the Clinical Epidemiology Unit (CEU), an affiliate of the Southeast Asian
Clinical Epidemiology Network.
In 1993, after having completed their Rockefeller-sponsored one-year course
work towards a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology, Dr. Manuel Emerson
Donaldo and Dr. Ma. Fidelis Espiritu-Quiza initiated the CEU under the
sponsorship of Dean Josefina L. Poblete. The primary mission was to improve
the research capability of the faculty and students. This assistance was
eventually extended to residents not just in the Cebu (Velez) General Hospital
but also to residents training and requiring research for certification of
specialty training in the nearby hospitals.
This research arm of the institution conducts different research methodology
workshops for various specialty societies, hospital residents, and students of
medical schools in Visayas and Mindanao. It also provides consultative
services to students, residents, consultants and faculty members undertaking
research studies.
CIM embraces problem-based learning methodology
In the early 1990s, the Association of the Philippines Medical Colleges (APMC)
conducted a seminar in the school and introduced the innovative curriculum of
integration (horizontal or vertical) and Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to
members of faculty as the educational strategy for the instruction in medical
schools to address the knowledge explosion of medical sciences.
The PBL approach was recommended for its promotion of self-directed learning,
critical thinking and better interpersonal relationship in students,
attributes vital in the practice of medicine.
Since 2000, from the 2nd to the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Problem-Based
Learning in Health Science in Manila, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia and the
Asia Pacific Medical Education Conferences in Singapore, members of the
faculty attended and participated in such conferences. Foremost among them was
Dr. Mario Sanchez, who had his Fellowship in International Medical Education
at the University of Texas, Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, U.S.A and the
UTMB Introductory Facilitator Training Workshop of the same institution from
January to July 2002. Dr. Sanchez was credited for putting the system of PBL
at CIM in place and the success of the first batch of PBL graduates of CIM.
In academic year 2001-2002, the institution initially implemented the
competency-based PBL approach curriculum in the first year class and became
fully PBL in all three year levels by school year 2003-2004.
The first batch of the full PBL students graduated in April of 2005 and took
the board examinations that same year. From the first PBL class, during the
August 2006 exam, 98% passed with two students topping the board examinations
namely, Erwyn Novilla, third place; Jun Maximo Lasco, sixth; in the February
2007 exam 100% passed and one student, Omid Etemadi, obtained the sixth place.
Most recently in December 2007, CIM became the third medical school in the
country and the first in the Visayas and Mindanao to be accredited by
Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).
Student Performance
From its 33 graduates in 1962, CIM has produced about 4,700 graduates, 35 of
whom graduated with honors. Some 110 of its graduates have placed in the top
ten of the Physician’ Licensure Examinations with eight graduates in first
place. Its graduates over the past years have obtained a high over all passing
percentage of 85% or better, keeping CIM among the first five top medical
schools in the country. In 2006, the passing percentage for the board exams of
the first graduates of PBL was 92%. And thereafter, for the next 3 board
exams, the passing percentage was 100%.
Since its founding to the present the school has maintained its standards as
envisioned by its founders.
Faculty Development
The Faculty Development Program started in 1963 wherein six faculty members
were sent on a fellowship training for two years through the sponsorship of
the USAID. Among them was Dr. Virginia Mesola, who was sent to West Virginia
University, U.S.A. for her Masters in Microbiology and who now presently heads
the Department of Microbiology. Since then, a good number of the faculty has
been sent to other institutions in Manila and Thailand for their masteral
studies. Aside from such grants, the school has also been holding regular
summer for workshops for faculty development.
The latest effort of CIM to further improve the professional profile of its
faculty, the Masteral Course in Professional Health Education was started in
2005 in cooperation with the University of the Philippines. Six members of the
faculty are currently taking the course.
Alumni Involvement
The alumni have continuously been involved in the activities of CIM. They have
donated books and equipment, sponsored scholars, renovated the amphitheaters,
helped in the construction of the skills laboratory, improved the other
facilities to make student life more comfortable, efforts very much
appreciated by the students.
In 1980, the CIT COM-CIM Alumni Association’s legal personality became
official as the Cebu Institute of Medicine Alumni Association, Inc. (CIMAAI),
with chapters in Manila headed by Dr. Nelson Abelardo (Class 75), in Eastern
USA which is formally called the American Society of Cebu Institute of
Medicine Alumni, Inc. under Dr. Dominador Ong, and in Bacolod led by Dr.
Severo Lacson (Class ’74).
In 2006, Dr. Thelma La Rosa-Fernandez assumed the presidency of the Cebu
Institute Alumni Association and with her vice president, Dr. Pek Eng Lim laid
the groundwork for the Golden Jubilee Celebration of CIM.
Source: Manila Bulletin Online
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