April 30, 2019 — Officials from the Macquarie University Australia composed of Prof. Patrick McNeil, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Medicine and Health and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Health Sciences; Prof. Jeffery Braithwaite, Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Miss Joanna Holt, Institute Coordinator and Center Coordinator, National Health and Medical Research Council Partnership Center for Health; Dr. Welly Firmanto, Faculty General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Ms. Hope Tancinco, Regional Director of Macquarie International, visited UP Manila on April 15, 2019.
UP Manila and Macquarie University have an existing partnership with the College of Medicine. The Memorandum of Understanding was undertaken previously to enhance relations through student exchange programs, joint research activities, joint conferences and other academic meetings, and exchange of academic materials and information.
“Macquarie university is a relatively young university. It was established in a period of time I suppose to be a different university in Sydney, different from the “Sandstone Universities” of Sydney that take a different approach in learning and teaching,” said Professor McNeil. He added that this collaboration is a unique initiative for a university in Australia.
“This has been a significant step forward and has proven to be a vital milestone for closer academic collaboration,” affirmed Chancellor Padilla in her message read by Vice Chancellor Nymia Simbulan. The UPM chancellor stated that the areas identified for collaboration include research in the health sciences, faculty exchange programs, joint programs at the graduate level and short courses. Specific areas covered in the collaboration include inter-professional education in Family Medicine, the use of big data in e-health and research areas on health innovation, health delivery and health financing. She emphasized that the latter fields are highly relevant to the Philippines in view of the recent enactment of the Universal Health Care Act and that collaboration in these fields will provide valuable inputs for its successful implementation.
Prior to the meeting between UP Manila and Macquarie University, a symposium was held with the following topics:
• MQ Health – an Australian first by Dr. Patrick McNeil. MQ Health is Australia’s first integrated medical center, combining world-class care, teaching and research;
• Australian Health Reform by Jeffrey Braithwaite, Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation
• World-class research/Real-world impact: creating the evidence to drive improvements in health service performance and collaborating with health partners to implement change within complex health systems by Ms. Joanna Holt, Institute Coordinator and Centre Coordinator of NHMRC Partnership Center for Health
• UP Manila National Institutes of Health (NIH) by Dr. Eva Cutiongco- De La Paz
• Service Delivery Networks: Making Systems Work for People by PGH Director Dr. Gerardo Legaspi
Charmaine Lingdas | Published in UP Manila Healthscape March-April 2019
