CEBU CITY – At least 400 multi-specialty doctors and health care providers from Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao committed to practice and propagate “Cardiology for All” during the recent Philippine Heart Association-Philippine College of Cardiology (PHA-PCC) Midyear Convention 2024 at the SMX Convention Center in Clark, Angeles City, Pampanga.
The confab, held from January 12 to 13, was attended by 411 cardiologists, internists, primary care physicians, general practitioners, nurses, and medical students.
MULTI-specialty doctors and health care providers from Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao attend the recent Philippine Heart Association-Philippine College of Cardiology Mid-year Convention 2024 at the SMX Convention Center in Clark, Angeles City, Pampanga. (Calvin D. Cordova)
The PHA-Central Luzon Chapter hosted the event which was halted for three years due to the pandemic.
The two-day scientific meeting tackled topics like hypertension, chronic coronary syndrome, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, acute coronary syndrome, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, valvular heart disease, men’s heart health, women’s heart health, cardiovascular considerations in sexual health, and preventive cardiology.
PHA President Dr. Ronald Cuyco said that the PHA-Central Luzon was the unanimous choice to host the confab as it has distinguished itself as one of the most active and competitive PHA chapters.
The confab was about learning and teaching cardiology to all the health professionals who encounter cardiovascular urgencies and emergencies and how to deliver prompt and better service to patients during their daily practice.
“We want to keep the 2,313 PHA members in step with global cardiovascular trends and be at par with foreign colleagues and to equip non-cardiologists with the ABCs of cardiovascular cases. This redounds to efficient care for every Filipino heart patient,” said PHA Vice President Dr. Rodney Jimenez, concurrent overall chairman of the PHA Mid-year Organizing Committee.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has remained the No. 1 cause of mortality in the country even during Covid.
The PHA has only more than 2,000 members and a big majority practice in Metro Manila, prompting the PHA to teach every doctor and health professional with CVD diagnosis and emergency care.
This way, patients can be referred to a heart specialist and a tertiary hospital with cardiovascular facilities.
ASEAN Federation of Cardiology (AFC) President Dr. Alex Junia was the plenary speaker who talked about leadership through the “The Personal Side Leading Different Academic Societies: What’s in It for Me.”
“Through the years, I learned more from my mentors and past PHA presidents that we can all be leaders beyond our clinics and hospitals. In the process, you develop life-long friendships and cultivate connections,” he said.
During Junia’s PHA presidency in 2015, the PHA became a member-country of the European Society of Cardiology under the reins of his good friend Dr. Fausto Pinto.
“These experiences spurred personal and professional growth. Though I may have missed out on income, I grew as a person, as a leader.”
Junia, a past PHA-Cebu president in 2010, officially took on the stewardship of the AFC last November. His flagship program is to establish a Valvular Heart Disease and Rheumatic Heart Disease Registry in the Philippines and AFC-member countries Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
A past president of the PHA-National and Cebu Chapter, the Cebu-based Junia was governor of the American College of Cardiology Chapter-Philippines from 2016 to 2017 and an active member of the European Society of Cardiology.