The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred sector-wide changes in managing disease. Changes in its classification and the issuance of interim guidelines on testing and treatment in the past couple of months have impacted the medical approaches to treating COVID-19 cases. As the medical community continues to closely study this disease, knowledge and expertise in the various clinical specialties have grown immensely.

To share the latest experiences and current practices of clinicians, scientists, researchers, and hospital administrators in the fight against COVID-19, the University of the Philippines System partnered with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to capacitate attendees through eLearning using a series of webinars.

Led by the UP Manila National Institutes of Health National Telehealth Center, the goals of this webinar series are as follows:

1)  To bridge the gaps in knowledge regarding clinical management by quickly and widely disseminating the latest information and state of the art practices that may be used in the treatment of COVID-19 in the country

2)   To create a learning support network among all hospitals of the country to attain a high standard quality of care; and

3)    To inform clinicians, scientists, researchers, and hospital administrators about policy, research, and action on the clinical management of COVID19.

The inaugural webinar of the series, which was launched last 24 April 2020, featured pulmonary medicine experts. Dr. Camilo Roa, UPCM professor and past president of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians, delivered talk entitled, “Clinical Management of COVID-19 Pneumonia.” This was followed by Dr. Aileen Wang, UPCM and PGH professor, on “Conducting Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. The last talk was by Dr. Leonora Fernandez, head of the PGH Division of Pulmonary Medicine, on “New Approaches of Ventilatory Therapy for COVID-19.”  

Held last 01 May 2020, the second webinar focused on managing COVID-19 cases from an infectious diseases perspective. PGH Hospital Infection Control Unit head Dr. Regina Berba and Chairperson of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at Southern Philippines Medical Center Dr. Marie Yvette Barez talked about “Infection Control for COVID-19” and “The SPMC COVID 101 Challenge”, respectively.

The most recent webinar held on 08 May 2020 highlighted the Philippines’ involvement in the Solidarity Trial, the multi-country study organized by the World Health Organization where 100 countries test the safety and effectiveness of four investigational drug regimens for COVID-19 treatment. Speaker for this third webinar was Dr. Marissa Alejandria, Director of the UPM-NIH Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Lead of the Philippine team for the Solidarity trial.

The webinar series live streams every Friday 12:00 -2:00 pm through Facebook Live using the official accounts of UP. The recordings are uploaded to the official YouTube channel of TVUP immediately after the webinar.

In the coming weeks, we will be having experts of the renal system (Dr. Elizabeth Montemayor, Vice President of the Philippine Society of Nephrology), cardiovascular system (Dr. Chito Permejo from the Philippine Heart Center), and approach to surgical procedures (Dr. Nelson Cabaluna from the PGH Department of Surgery). 

 Dr. Raymond Sarmiento | Published in Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 4