Three scientists from UP Manila made it to Asian Scientist magazine’s 100 most outstanding researchers in Asia. The three are Dr. Raul V. Destura, Dr. Cleotilde Hidalgo-How, and Dr. Joselito R. Chavez.
Since 2016, the magazine has been honoring the region’s most excellent researchers from different scientific disciplines. To be included in the list, the honoree “must have received a national or international prize in the preceding year for his or her research. Alternatively, he or she must have made a significant scientific discovery or provided leadership in academia or industry.” Since the list was begun in 2016, 42 Filipinos have made it into the roster. The Asian Scientist magazine is an award-winning science and technology magazine established in March 2011.
DR. RAUL V. DESTURA was honored in 2019 with the Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award for his creation of the award-winning Biotek-M Aqua Dengue Kit which gives a faster, more affordable, and accessible dengue diagnosis. The Biotek-M Dengue Aqua Kit is also one of two Philippine inventions which won a gold medal in the 46th International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland last April 2018.
Earlier this year, he and a team of UP scientists from the National Institutes of Health and the Philippine Genome Center came up with the first locally developed COVID-19 testing kit, the GenAmplifyTM Kit. Dr. Destura is a well-known microbiologist and infectious disease expert. He is Director of the NIH’s National Training Center for Biosafety and Biosecurity as well as the Vice President of the DOST National Research Council of the Philippines.
Dr. Destura, who described his “research bench to community approach is ultimately geared towards developing low-cost technologies for the control of infectious diseases in the Philippines and the generation of new knowledge to find sustainable and equitable solutions to disease of poverty” (source: http://nih.upm.edu.ph/content/destura-raul-v), has also received other prestigious national and international awards including: International Training and Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Fellowship Award (Center for Global Health Division of Infectious Disease and International Health, University of Virginia); The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines, 2011; Outstanding Young Scientist of the Philippines, 2008; and Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Award in Research given by the Philippine Medical Association, 2015.
DR. CLEOTILDE HIDALGO-HOW is recognized by Asian Scientist for her Dr. Paulo Campos Award for Health Research in 2019 given by the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology (PhilAAST). The award is for for her excellent contribution in the understanding, management, and diagnosis of tuberculosis among children and adolescents.
The Dr. Paulo Campos Award was created in 2012 by the PhilAAST and the Campos family to honor outstanding medical researchers whose dedicated service and contributions result in the betterment of the country.
Dr. How clusters her contributions to science into two fields: teaching of pharmacology and her work on childhood TB.
Dr. How is a professor emeritus of the UPCM Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology where she has been teaching Basic and Clinical Pharmacology for 30 years. She considers introducing students to the World Health Organization Guide to Good Prescribing as her specific contribution to the field of Pharmacology or Therapeutics. The Guide teaches students to learn how to select drugs based on efficacy, safety, suitability, and cost. This has been integrated into the curriculum of Therapeutics 202.
Dr. How was a member of the WHO core group for Childhood TB for seven years, where she was involved in reviewing the essential list of drugs for TB in children in 2008. She was also in the technical working group that produced the 2010 Rapid Advice for Anti-TB drugs that facilitated the adoption of recent adjustments in dose requirements for children. Lastly, she was part of the team that produced the fixed-dose-combination of isoniazid-rifampicin-pyrazinamide in a child-friendly formulation designed to improve compliance.
As Chair of the Committee on the TB Book of the Philippine Pediatric Society, she actively worked as editor of the last 3 editions (2003, 2010, 2016/17) and as a member in the first edition of 1993.
Aside from teaching, Dr. How presently heads the Philippine Coalition Against TB (PhilCAT) as National Chair, with special focus on Child and Adolescent TB. This organization of 60 professional societies is working hard for the global aim to END TB by 2035.
DR. JOSELITO R. CHAVEZ is an internist and pulmonologist who received the 2019 Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award for his groundbreaking work using Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) technique in poor people suffering from massive pulmonary hemorrhages due to leptospirosis which improved their chances of survival from 20% to 75%.The use of this technique also put the country in the world map for having the most number of patients who survived leptospirosis.
His more than 30 years of government service at the Philippine General Hospital and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) are characterized by charity work among the poor in the clinic, hospital, and community. He is also a volunteer in numerous medical missions.
As a mentor, he pioneered the implementation of the First Integrated Internship Program in the country. The Program gives medical interns the chance to rotate and hence, learn state-of-the-art medicine in six government hospitals including the specialty centers. This Program is now adopted by the Department of Health (DOH) as its official Internship Training Program.
Because of his exemplary work, Dr. Chavez received many awards in 2019 including the following: The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) award in Medicine; Philippine College of Physicians Exemplar Distinguished Internist; Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Award for Outstanding in Government Service from the Philippine Medical Association; and UP Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award in Public Service and Good Governance.
Additionally, because of the work of Dr. Chavez and his team in saving leptospirosis patients and the NKTI’s outstanding performance in this health emergency, the institute received honors from Healthcare Asia, the Service Innovation of the Year and Facilities Improvement Initiative of the Year, 2019 and Service Innovation of the Year 2020. Dr. Chavez is the Deputy Executive Director for MedicalServices at the NKTI and a Clinical Associate Professor at the UP-PGH.
FEDELYNN M. JEMENA | Published in Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 18
