Three doctors with different specialties but with a common goal of health and social upliftment and who are all alumni of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) were among the recipients of the Gawad Lagablab Award conferred by the PSHS in November 2015.

They are Dr. Portia Fernandez-Marcelo (PSHS Main Campus Class 1983), National Telehealth Center director and professor of community medicine; Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana (PSHS Main Campus Class 1992), director of the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology and a tropical disease expert; and, Dr. Ma. Asuncion Silvestre (PSHS Main Campus Class 1975), pediatrician and professor at the UPM College of Medicine.

Dr. Portia Fernandez-Marcelo’s vast experiences and achievements in health have contributed greatly to making quality health care accessible to the Filipinos, especially those in remote and underserved communities. For more than 25 years now, she has been engaged in health human resource education and training management. She devoted 14 of those years to health program/project management, research, and documentation.

She served as project leader, technical writer, and consultant in various projects of the Department of Health, UNICEF, GTZ InWent, USAID and World Health Organization.

At the helm of the UP Manila’s National Telehealth Center in the last five years, she built on and extended its public health informatics projects to more underserved communities and tested new features to address identified gaps in health information systems. Such projects increased the people’s access to health services and created a positive difference on their health. The Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS, the first electronic patient record that leads to easier tracking and faster and more accurate diagnosis, was awarded the Best Health Market Innovation by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and Center for Health Market Innovation.

Under her leadership, the NTHC assisted the DOH in conducting nationwide regional conferences to broaden awareness and engagement of regional government agencies, local government and private sector on the importance of a strong Philippine health information system and the promises of eHealth use.

She is currently the Project Leader of the Secretariat Support to the Asia eHealth Information Work of the WHO Regional Office in the Western Pacific Region. She serves as consultant of the Gawad-Kalinga–Kalusugan, a Community Health Development Program of GK and SAFEKIDS Worldwide-Philippines. She is an Associate Professor of Community Medicine and Social Medicine at the UPM College of Medicine (UPCM). She obtained her medical degree from UP in 1993 and Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland.

Dr. Salvaña’s advocacy on HIV/AIDS led to the widespread recognition of the disease epidemic in the Philippines and helped alleviate the sufferings of persons with HIV/AIDS. After completing his MD degree from the University of the Philippines, he pursued his residency and specialized studies in international infectious diseases and tropical medicine in the United States. He studied the HIV/AIDS epidemic that occurred in Africa and the US and deemed it a catastrophe that must not be repeated.

When he returned to the Philippines, he discovered an upsurge in HIV/AIDS cases. He immediately started a vigorous awareness and research campaign long before the Philippine government recognized the epidemic. His work on the disease spurred government agencies to regard HIV/AIDS policy a priority and initiated positive changes on testing and treatment.

Dr. Salvana has taken his campaign to a global level by delivering educational, action-oriented speeches on the epidemic before the United Nations and the UN Peace Corps. Locally, he treats patients at the Philippine General Hospital and established the first HIV/AIDS fellowship program to enhance care for patients.

A clinical associate professor at the UPCM, he is an adjunct faculty for Global Health at the University of Pittsburgh. After his fellowship in infectious disease and tropical medicine at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, he returned to the Philippines in 2008 as a Balik Scientist of the Department of Science and Technology.

Dr. Salvaña has been awarded Outstanding Young Scientist by the National Academy of Science and Technology, The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM), Devex 40 Under 40 International Development Leaders, and The Outstanding Young Persons of the World.

For her part, Dr. Silvestre completed her medical degree and residency at the UPCM-PGH and trained in neonatalogy at the Children’s Hospital in Michigan. A DOST Balik Scientist awardee, her work served as the foundation for the development and scale up of a simple intervention – the First Embrace or Unang Yakap – that is now saving 50,000 newborn babies each year in the Western Pacific Region.

In 2004, Dr. Silvestre was the convenor of a Situational Analysis on Newborn Health in the Philippines for the USAID. Armed as a clinical epidemiologist and researcher, she proceeded to collaborate with the WHO on the conception of the Essential Newborn Care that addressed the quality of care provided for newborns. This was adopted by the DOH, WHO and UNICEF and translated in seven languages worldwide.

She founded the Kalusugan ng Mag-ina, Inc, a non-stock, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the health of the mother-child dyad through research, policy development, and program implementation.

She is a consultant of the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office on Early Essential Newborn Care as it launched The First Embrace in its 34 member countries. She is also a consultant for WHO Geneva for updating various clinical practice guidelines for WHO Lao PDR and Vietnam And UNICEF Cambodia for the EINC adaptation.

She is a faculty member of the Asia Pacific Center for Evidence-based Medicine and has co-authored its book, Evidence-based Medicine, published by John Wiley and Sons, Ltd of UK.

The Gawad Lagablab Awards recognize PSHS alumni for developing and nurturing their capacities and skills and applying these for the wider and greater benefits of the Filipinos. # # #

Written by: CMVillamor, with reports from the 8th Gawad Lagablab souvenir program published by PSHS.