Family and Community Medicine

Vision

A community of life-long learner and achievers in the field of Family and Community Medicine…. innovative, progressive, highly competent, with moral, ethical, and spiritual vigor, inspired by live, compassion and respect for human life, family and country. Committed to the development and delivery of comprehensive, continuous, coordinated, accessible and holistic care to families and communities.

Mission

We commit ourselves to excellence and leadership in relevant family-centered and community – oriented medical education, research, and service.

In the face of continuous changes in the medical field wherein health care delivery had become highly specialized, impersonal, fragmented and expensive, there was a compelling need for an exceptional physician who would be able to cater to the majority of the health problems of Filipinos in a family oriented and comprehensive approach.

The Philippine General Hospital had been initially training only specialists for inpatient care, producing more specialists than were actually needed in the country. It was determined that there was a need to train physicians to provide first contact emergency, primary, and secondary care in both emergency and outpatient settings. This paved the way for the birth, in 1972, of a two-year residency program for general Practice. The program was later expanded into a three-year program allowing more training in Family This became the first Family and Community Medicine residency training program in the country. The program was envisioned to produce a new kind of specialist with a well-differentiated role in the health system and a well-defined set of skills who can provide comprehensive and holistic care to individuals, families, and communities.

In 1974, the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians gave the residency training program official accreditation, and since then it has continued its pioneering work in expanding the horizons of Family and Community Medicine in the country.

In December 1975, the Department of Family and Community Medicine was recognized as an Academic Department of the University of the Philippines and as a Clinical Department of Philippine General Hospital. Since the inception of the training program, innovations in behavioral sciences and counseling, research, hospice and palliative care, evidence-based family practice and quality assurance have been implemented which have made an impact in the training programs of other institutions in the country.

The Department has also been involved in pioneering work in the way residents are trained. As far back as 1985, the need for psychosocial interventions to complement biomedical interventions was identified as an important skill set in family practice. At that time, it was referred to as counseling skills or behavioral skills. In the early 1990s, the Department was the first to introduce psychosocial skills training formally into its training curriculum. In 1998, the Department was the first to align its curriculum objectives towards producing a “five-star family physician” playing the multiple roles of doctor, counselor, educator, advocate, and manager. In 1999, the Department was the first to include evidence-based medicine into its program. In the same year, the Department began using mentoring and learning portfolios as a teaching tool. Also in the same year, the two-track residency program was started where residents could obtain a masters degree in Clinical Family Medicine at the end of their residency. Most of these initiatives are now being required of all Family Medicine residency programs by the PAFP.

The Department is proud of its residency program. For its 38 years, it has produced 6 presidents of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians, 5 presidents of the Philippine Society of Teachers in Family Medicine (now known as the Foundation for Family Medicine Educators), 2 deans of College of Medicine, 5 chairs of the specialty programs in Family Medicine, 17 chairs of the different Departments of Family Medicine and one recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Men award.

The Department continues to move forward knowing fully well that the daunting task of attending to the health needs of country is unfinished.

OFFICERS OF THE DEPARTMENT

Chair. Dr. Karin E. Garcia
Vice-Chair for Residency and Fellowship: Dr. Josefina S. Isidro-Lapena
Vice-Chair for Faculty: Dr. Karin Estepa-Garcia
Vice-Chair for Research: Dr. Sheila Marie S. Laviña
Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Training: Dr. Anthony H. Cordero
Chief Resident: Dr. Reggiena Lachica

Division Head, Rural Community Based Health Program: Dr. Anthony H. Cordero
Division Head, Urban Community Based Health Program: Dr. Edelina dela Paz
Division Head, Supportive, Palliative and Hospice Medicine: Dr. Andrew E. Ang
Division Head, Family Health Unit: Dr. Anna Guia O. Limpoco
Division Head, Family Medicine Clinic: Dr. Irene Yu-Maglonzo

Administrative Officer: Mr. Christian Eric Villaflor

FACULTY DIRECTORY