News and Events

Chairman's Report from the Department of Pediatrics

The vision of the Department of Pediatrics of World Citi Medical Center is eventually to become a tertiary referral center. Since the last accreditation in 2007, the department has continually imparted updated medical education to the consultancy and residency staff by holding conferences with specialists/ sub-specialists on various topics. The staff is also encouraged to attend the different specialty, sub-specialty and hospitable post-graduate conferences to enable them to be more adept with the latest in pediatric care.

In January 19, 2011, the first scientific forum entitled "Approach to Chronic Conditions in Children" was held at the Gateway Suites, Araneta Center, Cubao, and Quezon City. Nine sub-specialists presented lectures on various chronic conditions in children namely: Chronic Anemia (Dr. Marieleise Afable), Chronic Otitis Media (Dr. Ernesto de Leon), Atopic Dermatitis (Dr. Rowena Romero-Francisco), Chronic Cough (Dr. Tristan Cabanilla), Unoperated Congenital Heart Disease (Dr. Magdalena Lagamayo), Chronic Constipation (Dr. Randy Urtula), and Chronic Urticaria (Dr. Kristine Santos). There were approximately 150 attendees.

In terms of infrastructure, the hospital has undergone significant renovations to improve its facilities towards the end of upgrading patient care. In line with the hospital's mission to provide optimum and holistic healthcare and wellness services to patients, Hematology Oncology Pediatric to Elderly Center (HOPE) was built in January 2011. It provides preventive, curative and rehabilitative care to patients with cancer and blood problems. Services offered include: blood transfusion, bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, chemotherapy, chelation and phlebotomy.

Presently, the department is staffed by 12 resident physicians, five 3rd year, four 2nd year, and three 1st year residents. In our efforts to enhance our residents' knowledge and clinical skills, 3rd year residents were rotated at the Philippine Children's Medical Center (PCMC) Regular Intensive Care Unit (RICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a month since last April 2011.

Since 2009 our hospital has been a member of the North Integrated Residency Training Program (NIRTP). The NIRTP is a group composed of five tertiary hospitals in Quezon City, namely: Capitol Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Jesus Delgado Medical Center, Quezon City General Hospital, and World Citi Medical Center. It has an advocacy to continue education and training in the field of Pediatrics with the objective of strengthening the residency training program of the member hospital. For the year 2011, two of our residents received awards, namely: Dr. Mary Roselyn Villarin - Best in Clinico-Pathologic conference, Dr. Farah Aviles - Best in Written Examinations and Overall Best Resident. Dr. Aviles was also awarded Best Resident during the Commencement Exercises of World Citi Medical Center.

In the field of research, the research committee of the department has been actively guiding the residents in their research proposals. Five graduation senior residents have already passed their researches to the Philippine Pediatric Society as part of the requirement for oral and written examinations of specialty boards. Two of these researches have won in the WCMC Inter-Departmental Research Paper. The study entitled, "The Level of NS1 Antigen as a Predictor of The Clinical Outcome of Admitted Pediatric Patients with Dengue Virus Infection: A Multi-Center Study" won first place. This research also won third place at the NIRTP Residents Research Contest. The study entitled "Association of Induced Sputum Total and Component Cell Counts with Asthma and its Severity in Children 6-18 years old Seen at a Tertiary Hospital in Quezon City" won third place.

Two junior residents won the 1st and 2nd place awards in the WCMC inter-Departmental Case Presentation, namely: Dr. Voltaire Vinco - Fixed Drug Eruption Secondary to Paracetamol, and Dr. Ma. Nenita Flor Consolacion - Ruptured Appendicitis in Infancy.

The self-assessment checklist accomplished by the consultants highlights our department's strengths and weaknesses. This is necessary to gain insight regarding the department's over-all performance. The self-assessment rating increased from 4.51 in 2010 to 4.65 at present.

Training, research and pediatric health care delivery would continuously improve through the efforts of the competent staff as well as the support of the hospital administration.