MANILA - The Dr. Salvacion R. Gatchalian Memorial Webinar Series was launched last July 14, 2020 with no less than UP Manila Chancellor Carmencita Padilla as the inaugural webinar speaker on the topic: Congenital Childhood Diseases: Role of Newborn Screening.
An engaging lecture attended by more than 700 physicians, nurses, students, and lay persons, Dr. Padilla imparted three important key points:
1. Congenital disease, also called a birth defect, is a major cause of infant morbidity and mortality;
2. The goal of newborn screening is to screen all Filipino newborns for common and rare congenital diseases to reduce preventable deaths; and
3. The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the newborn screening performance in the country but efforts were made to continue the service for the newborns.
This webinar was sponsored by the Newborn Screening Society of the Philippines, Inc. Dr. Ma-Am Joy Tumulak, genetic counselor at the UP Manila National Institutes of Health, moderated the interactive question and answer portion. A testimonial video featured a patient with congenital hypothyroidism who was screened at birth and went on to get a college degree.
Watch the webinar at the MU Sigma Phi Ageing and Longevity
Medical Webinars Facebook Page
The year-long pediatric webinar series aims to honor the memory of Dr. Salvacion R. Gatchalian, a renowned pediatric infectious disease specialist, President of the Philippine Pediatric Society, alumna of the UP College of Medicine, and member of the Mu Sigma Phi Sorority, whose untimely passing shook UP Manila and the medical community. The series tackles relevant and timely medical topics on the care of children – immunization, diabetes, hearing loss, nutrition, developmental growth, pneumonia, red eye, among others. Through interactive lectures, prominent specialists in the forefront of their respective medical fields, here and abroad, discuss salient points to provide evidence-based guidelines for timely and appropriate medical care and improve the quality of life of the pediatric population.
Registration to the webinars is free through bit.ly/muwebinars2020. The target participants include physicians (general practitioners, occupational and industrial physicians, family and community medicine physicians, school physicians, preventive and wellness medicine practitioners, doctors to the barrios), other healthcare professionals (nurses, pharmacists), and medical and paramedical students,here and abroad. The webinars will be held on selected Tuesdays (12:00-1:00pm Manila time) from July 2020 to June 2021, through livestream.upm.edu.ph, and Facebook @AgeingWebinars.
This webinar series is organized by the Mu Sigma Phi Sorority of the UP College of Medicine in cooperation with the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine and the Mu Sigma Phi Foundation, Inc, to raise funds for the PGH Department of Pediatrics. For more inquiries, please contact muwebinars2020@gmail.com (DR. ROWENA F. GENUINO for UP Healthscape/UP Manila)#
