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Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc.
January 2008
Aiming for the best in health education…
Humble beginnings
Mindanao is the usual picture of public neglect, and the health condition of
its residents is the immediate and direct consequence of it. The lack of
health personnel and facilities has further worsened the people’s plight,
especially in the rural areas.
Looking beyond the health statistics, the faces of anguish and plea for
accessible health services have sent concerned individuals and groups to the
different places in Mindanao, raising advocacy for increased assistance and
training of more personnel.
Thus, the existence of a good community-oriented medical school in a community
will be a good index of the quality of concern of the community members for
their fellowmen.
Such a concern led to the establishment of the Davao Medical School Foundation
on July 20, 1976, as a consortium composed of the following institutions:
Ateneo de Davao University (a Jesuit university), Brokenshire Memorial
Hospital (operated by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines),
Development of People’s Foundation (a non-stock, non profit medical
cooperative), San Pedro College (operated by the Dominican Sisters, and San
Pedro Hospital.
The the Davao Medical School Foundation is registered with the Securities and
Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit institution with Registration
No. 89-312-779. It is also approved by the Department of Education, Culture,
and Sports with Permit No. 32. The institution was originally composed of the
College of Medicine, the Center for Health Education and Research Development
(CERDH), the Institute of Primary Health Care (IPHC) and the College of
Dentistry. The latter was organized in 1980 as a department of the DMSF. It
was formed in response to the long felt need to provide dental education and
training for effective service to both rural and urban communities.
On June 17, 1985, the College was given government recognition by the Ministry
of Education, Culture, and Sports to operate the four-year Doctor of Dental
Medicine course.
Aside from the degrees of Medicine and Doctor of Dental Medicine, DMSF tenders
the following courses through CERDH, Innovative Health Sciences Education (a
stepladder program for the training of Barangay Health Workers and midwives),
Masters in Community Health, and Masters in Participatory Development.
Another program, the Institute of Primary Health Care assists in the
institutional goals through the development of sustainable programs for
primary health care at the community level.
Present times
Davao Medical School Foundation, Inc. envisions itself as a medium to create
healthy communities enjoying quality life. With its mission to voluntarily
commit itself providing humanistic and holistic services through excellence in
instruction, research, patient and community health care; developing a culture
of trust honesty and cooperation; developing a community of competent,
committed and caring persons; and nurturing compassionate, ethically and
socially accountable graduates, the college continues to adhere to its core
values such as Faith in God, Integrity, Respect, and Excellence and instill
these in its students.
Aiming to continue its pursuit for excellence, the Davao Medical School
Foundation, Inc. continues to make innovations and developments for its
students. The newest additions in the college include: (1) the DMSF Hospital,
where trained doctors focused mentoring on medical students while also
catering to the health needs of the community; (2) the College of Nursing, to
address the massive exodus of nurses out of the country; and (3) the Institute
of Graduate Studies and Research (IGSR), as the research and training arm of
DMSF.
Flagship courses
The academic programs of Davao Medical School Foundation aims to develop the
students with the knowledge, skills and potential that combine advanced work
in the specific academic fields with courses in medical and dental, nursing
and midwifery areas, thereby equipping students for professional employment in
a variety of both private and public sector fields. This is in line with the
DMSF’s objective of forming an integral man through educational enrichment
guided by the Catholic faith.
•College of Medicine-The captains in their fields. From its humble beginning
in some run-down classrooms in San Pedro College to the current school campus
in Bajada, the Davao Medical School has come a long way in honing and training
doctors and medical professionals to serve the people of Mindanao.
True to the original goal of the institution, the DMSF College of Medicine has
graduated doctors that have carved their niches in public health, private
medical practice, academe and business sectors of society. The graduates of
the college fill up the positions of rural, city and national health
structures of the government. One will behold familiar faces when visiting
various hospitals or health centers. Dr. Dolores Castillo and Dr. Josephine
Villafuerte, both from the first batch (1981), are only two of the many who
figure importantly in the Department of Health and Davao City Health Office,
respectively. The College has many graduates in the Doctors to the Barrio
program of the Department of Health and many have dedicated their lives close
to the people.
• College of Dentistry-Through the Years. The College of dentistry was
established as a unit of the Davao Medical School Foundation in 1980 to
address the long-felt need of rural and urban communities for a well rounded
dental care and services. Many prominent dentists in the city were invited to
help organize the College, with some of them absorbed as faculty members.
For the past 26 years, the College has consistently maintained a high standard
of quality dental education. Its graduates have performed well in the Dentist
Licensure Examinations.
In 1994, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), through the
Bureau of Higher Education ranked DMSF 4th among the 19 dental schools based
on the 1988-1992 licensure examinations. Recently, the Technical Panel on
Dental Education of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) rated the
College 84.4 percent.
To date, the College has produced graduates, many of whom are serving in
Mindanao as private dental practitioners or in government service, at the
Departments of Health and Education, city health departments, the Armed Forces
of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
• College of Nursing-A simple but huge ship. Coming in to fill up the dearth
in nursing care, the College of Nursing of the Davao Medical School Foundation
has laid down the best training ground and an atmosphere conducive for
learning.
From the initial batch of 130 students in 2003, total student population in
the college has reached 578 in a continued increasing trend every school year.
Like the other units of DMSF that draw their lifeblood of inspiration from the
mission of the mother unit, the College of Nursing is also advocacy in itself,
emerging from the chaos of the exodus of the country’s nurses to green
pastures abroad. Joeriz Veliganio, an academic scholar, has grasped this
advocacy when he said that the College, “as an institution, upheld several
essential values and integrated it to its curriculum to make their students
effective in every aspect”.
The school has maintained throughout the years its integrity when it comes to
quality education with the use of state-of-the-art facilities and competent
personnel. But despite its excellence in education, it continues to be humble
and noble in giving opportunities for competent but financially incapable
students,” he said.
• Master in Community Health. The Master in Community Health course was
establish in 1988 as an innovative program designed for post-graduate
physicians, nurses and other health related degree holders to fill the gap
between what has been learned in the school and the seemingly alien
environment in the community. Such expressed need is a reality since health
problems in the community are enmeshed in a socio-eco-political structure
which cannot be subdivided and therefore has to be addressed in its entirety.
It is also an attempt to shift the perspective of health from a medical
standpoint to a social concern. The program is patterned after the Master in
Public Health, but has been designed and innovated to be implemented in a
community-based setting hand-in-hand with academic learning inputs. The end
product is a degree of Master in Community Health.
•Master in Participatory Development. The Master in Participatory Development
program aims to provide professional competence and career development to
field workers and development managers from the government, non-government and
private sectors.
This two-year Innovative program, is especially designed for those who want to
pursue further studies in the area of community participatory development but
whose dedication to their jobs, their families or their vocation prevent them
from taking up masteral studies in the traditional classroom setting.
• Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). The Davao Medical
School Foundation (DMSF) has signed an educational partnership agreement with
Healthcare Management International (HCMI), to promote a new program called
the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Degree (MBBS) program. The
program is designed to prepare students who want to pursue a career in
medicine.
The MBBS Program is a collaborative effort between HCMI and DMSF to give more
individuals the opportunity to pursue their dreams of becoming a doctor.The
MBBS program comprises four and half years, followed by a compulsory one year
internship. Additional Highlights of the Program include: MCI Screening test
preparation, USMLE test preparation, and Assistance with visa applications.
• Stepladder Education Program. The Stepladder program or better known as the
Innovative Health Sciences Education Partnership (IHSEP) provides the barangay
health workers (BHW) or their children and representatives or indigenous
peoples (IPs) opportunity to become community health aides, midwives and other
professions in the filed of health.
This was conceptualized by the Department of Health (DOH) in 1994 to provide
the academic and professional training requirement of health care providers to
respond to the health needs in the remotest and underserved depressed
communities, where doctors and other health professionals seldom visit or not
at all.
End of a drought
After two decades, DMSF is back in the limelight.
Thanks to Maximilian Garcia Larena for placing number 6 with a grade of 83.50,
in the February 21, 2007 Physician Licensure Examination. Dr. Larena is back
to his Alma Mater as an Instructor in basic subjects, dividing his time
between the College of Nursing and the DMSFI.
In the June 1986 Licensure Examination, Darleen San Jose (now Estuart) tied
with UST for the number 4 spot. The euphoria following her feat took a long
time to simmer down. Dr. Estuart is now the Chairperson of the Department of
OB-GYN in Brokenshire Memorial Hospital and the Assistant Chairperson in the
same Department in DMSF. She is married to classmate Dr. Jack Estuart, the
Medical Director of Brokenshire Memorial Hospital.
In the same year, December 1986, another classmate Erwin Rommel N. Hontiveros
placed number 20 along with four others, with grade of 87.5. Dr. Hontiveros is
presently the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and the Head of the Medical
Education Unit of DMSF.
A bright star suddenly appeared in the horizon in the August 2001 Physician
Licensure Examination. Teodora Amor Najera placed number 12 with a grade of
85.25. Dr. Najera is presently with the Department of Internal Medicine in
Davao Doctor’s Hospital.
In spite of the paucity of top rankers, DMSF is safely ensconced in the top 20
institutions as to performance in the Physician Licensure Examinations. From
1989 to 1993, DMSF was ranked number 11 with an average number of 47 examinees
per year. The average per centage of passers during the last five years was
84.3%
The school faced a challenge to bring back the lost glory, and with the latest
caper of Dr. Larena, the drought is over. And everybody is hoping that the
same thing will happen again.
Source: Manila Bulletin Online
Philippine Schools Online Directory
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