September 24, 2019 — Dr. Carmencita Padilla, most recognized for initiating the newborn screening (NBS) program in the Philippines, was conferred The Robert Guthrie Award – the highest recognition for neonatal screening – given by the International Society for Neonatal Screening (ISNS) during its 10th symposium and 11th Asia Pacific Regional Meeting in Hangzhou, China in September 19-22, 2019.
The award is given annually to honor individuals with significant contribution to national and worldwide development of NBS. For the past years, the UP Manila Chancellor has been the strongest advocate of NBS in the country that had helped detect and treat genetic conditions in newborns that could lead to mental retardation or death if undiagnosed. In 1996, she convinced the Department of Health to include newborn screening in its national program and lobbied for it until it became a law in 2004.
Her efforts made the NBS program available in more than 7,000 health facilities in the Philippines that has become a model for the developing world. She is also responsible for the Rare Disease Act that provides support for Filipinos with life-threatening and costly diseases that, in some extent, are neglected because of the rarity of their disease.
Dr. Padilla is still actively engaged in preparing policy statements and is finalizing the draft bill on folic acid supplementation and fortification. The ISNS also acknowledged her worldwide leadership and pioneering contributions. This includes her holding of important positions in national and international organizations dealing with neonatal health, assisting in setting up NBS services in several emerging nations, consultancy to the U.S. National Newborn Screening and Genetics Resource, organizing external funding for meetings of countries in the Asia Pacific Region that needed funding, organizing and hosting international workshops to develop sustainable NBS systems, and numerous peer-reviewed publications on the NBS that contributed in developing sustainable NBS operations.
In the same event, Dr. Padilla served as a speaker in two sessions of the symposium, one of which is a preliminary report on the Philippine Multicenter Pulse Oximetry Screening for Critical Congenital Heart Disease.
Dr. Padilla is an Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines Among the distinguished awards and honors she received are the 2019 Professional Regulation Commission Award for Outstanding Professional for Medicine and the 2017 R. Rodney Howell Award for Excellence in Newborn Health given by the US Newborn Screening Foundation.
Anne Marie Alto | Published in UP Manila Healthscape September – October 2019
