November 19, 2004

Last of 2 parts - (Part 1)

     I consider my conversation with the College Dean, Dr. Victoria Villareal, an achievement of sorts. Although I felt a little guilty about it now since I took almost half her day. What with the traffic abnormally slow and a little confusion about the meeting place. She may have had other appointments considering her stay in Chicago was so short and the plan was only for me to pick up the College's admission policies for publication.

     But the meeting proved to be productive for both the Dean and myself. I got most of the information I needed and Dr. Villareal was able to impart at least what she wanted the international alumni community to know - the help that the College needs, the Medical Education & Research (WVSU) Foundation, an overview of Problem-Based-Learning (PBL), and the curriculum the College is currently on.

     Dr. Villareal desires to meet every alum in the U.S., if ever possible. I told her something like this needs a few months notice, even a year. It's hard to bring people together here on short notice. I think it is such a great idea. Imagine a reunion in 2 years or so to coincide with the Dean's visit to the U.S., then we can have her as our guest speaker. Well, sounds great to me, at least.

     I mentioned a few alumni off the top of my head, those I happened to remember. I told Dr. Villareal where they are now and what they do. From those who practice medicine (a Harvard professor, an Infectious Disease specialist, a Pathologist and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons), to those who do not (nurses and those who are married to one). Dr. Villareal remembers us all.

     The College has continued to perform very well in licensure examinations. In February and August, 2001 board, WVSU-COM had a passing percentage of 87% (72 of 83) good for no. 4 among schools with up to 99 examinees. Overall, it placed no. 3, behind only University of the Philippines-Manila and University of Santo Tomas. In February and August, 2002, the College placed 3rd among schools with 100 or more examinees, behind UP-Manila and UST. The data were provided to the College by CHED (Commission on Higher Education). No data were available for 2003 and 2004.

     I forgot to ask Dr. Villareal what's the first batch under the present PBL (Problem-based Learning) curriculum to take the licensure examinations if indeed a batch has taken one already. But she did tell me that the present Board of Medicine has some kind of a "discord" with the schools that offer the PBL curriculum. The members of the Board don't believe in the PBL and frame the board's questions based on the traditional system. I am thinking the August, 2004 performance of 67%, although still high on the list compared to other schools, is a significant dip in ratings, and could be the result of this "discord" between the College and the Board of Medicine.

     Looking at a copy of the PBL Curriculum and remembering the subjects I took in Medical School, I couldn't help but exclaim to myself, man, I am so retro. Except for the Fourth Year curriculum, which is basically clerkship, the subjects are so different, you need to frame your old transcripts of record. They are not even called subjects now but "blocks". Blocks with descriptive titles. For example, Block II is Understanding Health and Diseases, taught or implemented during the first year. Block XVIII is Urinary System, taught or implemented during the third year.

     The idea is teaching the subject as a body system rather than as a specialty or a particular area of Medicine. This can prepare the student better clinically and prevent redundancy of lectures. In the old system, you may discuss the digestive system in your Medicine lecture today and discuss the same system in your Surgery lecture the next week. And in Pathology the day after, and so on and so forth. In the PBL system, Digestive System is a block (XI), consisting of 3 weeks and 238 hours of interactive learning (for my lack of a better description), which cover all specialties. In other words, it's organ-based and integrated.

     I'll put the whole curriculum or module in the College Page I am currently working on, but for the sake of discussion, I am reproducing the curriculum below.

Block No.	Descriptive Title	No. of Weeks	No. of Hours
FIRST YEAR CURRICULUM
I	Medicine: Science, Art, Career	3	114
II	Understanding Health and Diseases	3	114
III	Fundamentals and Organization	7	266
IV	Shape, Support and Motion	4	152
V	Communication, Control and Integration	4	136
VI	Vascular Integration and Defense	5	170
VII	Respiration and Digestion	4	136
VIII	Excretion and Reproduction Research 1 Community Work	4	136 68 68
SECOND YEAR CURRICULUM
IX	Growth and Development	7	238
X	Integumentary System	3	102
XI	Digestive System	7	238
XII	Cardio-vascular system	5	170
XIII	Respiratory System	5	170
XIV	Reproductive System Research II Community Work	7	238 68 136
THIRD YEAR CURRICULUM
XV	Musculoskeletal System	4	136
XVI	Endocrine System, Genetics	6	204
XVII	Neuro-Psychiatry	7	238
XVIII	Urinary System	6	192
XIX	Hematopoietic System	5	160
XX	Special Senses Legal Medicine Research III Community Work	6	192 34 68 136
FOURTH YEAR CURRICULUM
	Clerkship	No. of Months
	Medicine	2 1/2
	Pediatrics	2 1/2>
	Surgery	2
	Ob-Gyn	2
	Community Medicine	1 1/2
	Neuropsychiatry	1 1/2
	EENT
		Total: 12

     Essentially, the clerkship (fourth year curriculum) remained the same. Community work is now done exclusively in Igbaras. Each student (or group of students?) is assigned a family in his or her first year and will follow-up the same family until clerkship.

     I'll let you judge this system, based on what you've gone through as a student yourself. Please post your comments at this thread in the Forum.

     I have always felt that as the self-proclaimed, self-appointed editor of this web site, it is my job to inform (aside from making you smile a bit or irritating you from time to time). So I wrote the Dean for information on Admission Policies of the College to include in this site's pages. As I said in my last column, I got more that I bargained for. When Dr. Villareal mentioned that she's going to Chicago, I told her that I'll just pick up those policies from where she's staying. I didn't intend to take even an hour off of her time and her husband from their short stay in this windy city. But Dr. Villareal took her time to explain to me everything, ask me questions and listen to my stories. That was the longest time I have spoken to the Dean, one-on-one, ever. And for that, I am forever grateful.

     She did not have to do it but Dr. Villareal took her time to be a spokesperson for the Medical and Research Foundation of the College of Medicine. She took her time to inform this site (and hopefully all alumni who visit) about the changes to our school. She took her time to reach out to all alumni, to encourage us to re-connect to the school. She took her time to ask for our help.

     I consider my conversation with the Dean an achievement. I am honored to convey her message to everyone. I assured her I'll do whatever I can so her message gets through.

     How you respond to her message is a different story altogether.

Feedback: send your comments to the author (anonymously, if you wish)

     The author's e-mail address is at drgarcia(at)wvsumedaa.com

     Views expressed on this column and any other by-lined articles on this site are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization or its members.