UNDER THE MICROSCOPE The WTW Global Medical Trends Survey found health care benefit costs in the Philippines continue to be high at 18.3 percent compared to 19.3 percent in 2024. It is the second highest in the Asia Pacific region next to Indonesia at 19.45 percent. The rate is expected to be...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE The public hearings in Congress has opened a whole new can of worms. Well, not really new. Corruption has been with humanity as long as history itself. But it illustrates just how insidious and all-permeating it can be. But why can’t people really grasp the full meaning of...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Last week, we had the 73 rd Annual Convention of the Philippine Society of Pathologists Inc. (PSPI). It was an occasion to meet with colleagues especially after the pandemic. More than that, the convention was an opportunity to update on the newest advances in...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Cervical Cancer is the second most frequent cancer (after breast cancer) and the most common cause of death from cancer in Filipino women. In 2020, the Philippines recorded almost 8,000 new cervical cancer cases and more than 4,000 deaths alone. It is of high public health...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Glutathione hit the front pages and trended on social media for the wrong reasons. The wife of a first-time senator posted that nothing can stop her from having her glutathione intravenous (IV) drip, even while she’s in the senator’s office. Naturally, netizens came down...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Doctors’ chat groups are all abuzz over the news of Dr. Benigno (Iggy) Agbayani Jr.’s criminal conviction for serious physical injury through reckless imprudence. This was a case from 2006 when a patient filed the cases due to a post-operative site infection. ...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Almost everyone was all praise for the decision to put up specialty centers for health in different parts of the country. They cite the difficulty of accessing advanced health care by folks from the provinces, who have to trek all the way to Imperial Manila for the expertise...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Our esteemed lawmakers are at this time proposing to build more penal facilities. They cite extreme overcrowding in our jails and even quote the UN minimum standards for detention facilities and 1987 Constitution, which “vehemently opposes the use of substandard or...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Summer is upon us and with it comes the usual complaint: “Walang tubig!” Our water authorities have imposed water rationing once more, with the threat of longer periods of dry taps due to the rapidly declining water levels at the La Mesa and Angat Dams. Construction of the...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE A 14-year-old student recently collapsed while playing football and died. It was attributed to heat stroke, since temperatures were starting to rise to heat-wave levels. But was it really heat stroke? Or did he have another cause of death? Young men engaging in sports even in...
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Retirement issues are once again in the news. A House bill proposes lowering the optional retirement age to 56. Another bill seeks to scrap the mandatory retirement age, which now stands at 65 years of age. This topic stirs up personal feelings for me, having been mandatorily...
