August 9, 2022 — Associate Professor Francis R. Capule and Professor Fernando B. Garcia, Jr. were appointed deans of the College of Pharmacy and College of Public Health, respectively, by the UP Board of Regents during its 1371st meeting held on June 9, 2022. Their term of office is three years from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025.
Dean Capule is a doctoral graduate in clinical pharmacy from Mahidol University in Thailand (2018) and a UP Manila graduate of MS Pharmacology (2013) and BS Pharmacy (2004). He also obtained formal trainings in clinical pharmacy at the St. Luke’s Medical Center and Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan; good pharmacy practice at the Taipei Medical University, Taiwan; and medical innovation at the Kyushu University, Japan.
He has contributed significantly to curricular revision and development in UPCP and led innovations in education such as integrating a virtual pharmacy simulation platform to enhance remote learning for pharmacy students. He set up an academe-training hospital collaboration framework to promote and enhance the patient medication counseling services at the Philippine General Hospital through a Good Pharmacy Practice Project grant from the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations Foundation; and facilitated the full adoption of the Philippine Pharmacists Association (PPhA) COVID Response Telepharmacy Service into what is now the UP College of Pharmacy Telepharmacy Service.
His other contributions include leading a six-month Clinical Pharmacy Training Program for hospital pharmacists, modules on Vaccine-Preventable Diseases for Immunizing Pharmacists used by the PPhA, and a Training Manual on Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management for Government Hospitals for the Department of Health.
For years, Dr. Capule has been involved in providing technical assistance to local and international organizations such as the World Health Organization, DOH, Academia, and Journals. In 2015, he joined a project commissioned by the WHO to examine the effects of the typhoon Haiyan on medicine management system.
He serves as a member of the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Drug Advisory Pool of Experts. He is also a regular speaker in professional groups and universities, and a lecturer for the Philippine Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Refresher Course Review as well as other in-house review classes of pharmacy schools for the Pharmacist Licensure Exam.
Among Dean Capule’s plans are: prioritize the approval of new academic programs [i.e., MS Pharmaceutical Sciences, MS Social and Administrative Pharmacy, Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), MS Clinical Pharmacy] and aggressive marketing of these programs; create more joint innovative and translational research projects/programs leading to development of products, provision of extension services, policymaking, program planning, etc; set up facilities for faculty, such as video recording room and acquisition of other online learning platforms to support preparation and use of high-quality materials for instruction; create safer and healthy learning spaces with stable internet connection for students to facilitate learning and foster exchange of ideas and collaboration; generate more teaching collaborations with local and international partners for deployment of interns and advanced pharmacy practice experiences, visiting professorship, faculty and student exchange programs, etc.; and focus on improving efficiency of internal processes in the College and transitioning to digitalization of processes.
His full flagship programs can be found here.
Dean Garcia Jr. is Professor 3 of Health Policy and Administration and formerly Assistant to the CPH Dean for Planning & Development. He has held several administrative and academic/teaching committee chairmanships at the university, as follows: Department of Health Policy and Administration; PH 280 Committee (Field Practice) for both regular students and Doctors to the Barrio students of the Master of Public Health (MPH) program; Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Program Committee (2018- 2019); and Master of Hospital Administration (MHA) Program Committee (2015-2018).
He received his BS degree, major in Economics (1997) and Master of Public Administration (2006) both at UP Diliman. He has a Ph.D. in Public Health (Health Economics) from the School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia in 2017; after completing a Doctor of Public Administration program coursework at UP Diliman in 2012.
With his multidisciplinary background combining academic degrees, professional trainings, and experiences, his research interests include General and Health Economics, Economic Evaluations, Public Health, Health Systems Strengthening, Public Management, Leadership and Governance, and Health Policy.
Among Dean Garcia’s plans are: create new graduate tracks or programs in response to the country’s demands in areas such as Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM), Health Leadership and Governance, Field Epidemiology, and PhD in Public Heath; develop interdisciplinary graduate programs that will allow academics and professionals from various fields, institutions, and universities to collaborate more effectively; strengthen multidisciplinary research and dissemination activities by coordinating knowledge exchange, publication, and advocacy for the use of research outputs that include, but are not limited to: One-Health, Food Safety and Nutrition, Infectious Diseases, Health Technologies and Innovations, Occupational Health and Safety, Assessment of Environmental Exposure and Health Risk, and Inequities in Health, particularly among underprivileged, marginalized, and vulnerable people.
He also plans to provide technical assistance to national and local policymakers in order to ensure health equity for the targeted populations, improve health leadership and governance, improve service delivery, and improve health systems in general.
For the full details of his flagship programs, please click here.
Cynthia M. Villamor
