Caraga unveils 1st school of medicine
By
Renelle Escuadro
BUTUAN CITY (PIA) – House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez inaugurated the School of Medicine (SoM) academic building at Caraga State University (CSU) main campus in Butuan City on March 22.
Commission
on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson J. Prospero E. De Vera III, First
District Representative Joboy S. Aquino II, CSU officials led by President Dr.
Rolyn C. Daguil, faculty of SoM led by Dr. Teresita Cadiz-Brion, dignitaries,
and other key officials of the government witnessed the ceremony that coincided
with the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair in Agusan del Norte from March 22 to
23, where the university was selected as the venue.
The
facility will pioneer the medical school in the Caraga Region offering a
curriculum adaptive on community-based instruction described as innovative,
integrated, spiritual, and outcome-based, shifting from traditional approaches
to medical education.
According
to CHED Chairperson J. Prospero E. De Vera III, the unveiling of the Caraga
State University School of Medicine building design is one of the steps to
ensure the institutionalization of the Doctor of Medicine Program in CSU. Photo
courtesy of CSU.
According to CSU, once the School of Medicine receives the go signal from CHED, they may start to hire faculty members and accept 50 medical students to pioneer the program for the school year 2024 - 2025.
This
milestone will finally put an end to the prolonged agony in the region over the
lack of healthcare professionals. With this, Caraganons will no longer spend
expensive and tedious travel to other key cities of the country to receive
quality healthcare services from caliber medical practitioners.
For Dr.
Daguil, “The Caraga State University demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the
implementation of its Doctor of Medicine Program through streamlined
engagements and series of collaboration activities with stakeholders to bring
this journey to fruition.”
A
historic signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between CSU and Davao
Regional Medical Center (DRMC) happened at the House of Representatives,
Batasan Hills, Quezon City, on Sept. 25, 2023.
On Oct.
10, 2023, CSU and the Davao Regional Medical Center (DRMC) formalized their
collaboration, which designated DRMC as the training hospital for future
medical students of CSU's proposed School of Medicine.
As
outlined in the MOA, CSU is responsible for the curriculum and instruction of
its Doctor of Medicine Program, which encompasses the development of
guidelines, policies, manuals, and the establishment of learning objectives,
target competencies, and clinical training assessments. DRMC, in return, shall
provide the required clinical clerkship, learning, and development to the CSU's
future medical students during their clinical clerkship stage and render the
necessary individual assessment and evaluation.
The
university also formalized a pioneering partnership with the barangay local
government unit of Abilan and Gawad Kalinga-Abilan (GK Abilan) through the
ceremonial signing of the MOA on Oct. 19, 2023. This signified a collaborative
effort to provide essential medical and clinical training for the university's
School of Medicine program through community engagement.
CHED
Caraga recently deliberated the specifics of the proposed program to ensure
that the Doctor of Medicine is aligned with national standards and benchmarks.
Gov. Nilo
P. Demerey Jr. of the Province of Dinagat Islands and chairperson of the Caraga
Regional Development Council (RDC) visited the school on March 1 and discussed
the future direction of the SoM.
The
partnership between Caraga State University and Gawad Kalinga Abilan will play
a crucial role of highlighting the potential of healthcare accessibility not
only in the Caraga Region but also in the underserved areas nearby. Photo
courtesy of CSU.
As a way forward, the Caraga RDC Full Council, through Social Development Committee Resolution No. 13, series of 2024, approved the budget requirement for fiscal year 2025 of the SoM academic building of over P349 million, while the construction of the CSU Medical Training Hospital cost another P612,900,000.
Caraga
State University is the only state university in the country that has
leapfrogged from state universities and colleges (SUC) level 2 to SUC level 4
status. It is the only level 4 SUC in Caraga Region, one of the only five Level
4 SUCs in Mindanao, and the first SUC in the region to have been ISO 9001:2015
certified. It is also one of the 20 level 4SUCs in the Philippines, one of the
SUCs in the country that has been granted three QS stars by Quacquarelli
Symonds, and the first SUC in the region that received the Recognition for
Proficiency in Quality Management (Level II) under the Philippine Quality Award
(PQA) assessment cycle.
Soon to be the first medical school in the region, this will set forth as Caraga State University’s response to the challenge of establishing a future-proof academic institution. (RLE/PIA-Caraga)
