End of Week 1

Heyo,

My heart feels heavy for the people here.

A patient in his 50's suffered a heart attack (STEMI) however couldn't afford the proper treatment and instead received what he could afford- a statin and a beta blocker. In America, a trip to the cardiac cath lab for intervention would be immediate regardless of your ability to pay.

This man is one of the millions of Filipinos who don't have access to healthcare. I was shocked to realize that about 50% of the population will die from their illness without ever seeing a healthcare provider. The population as of 2010 is 92.34 million with about 70,000 registered doctors. This is equivalent to ~7 doctors for every 10,000 people (ideal ratio is 30 MDs per 10,000). The scarcity in healthcare providers is probably due to the fact that the Philippines is the largest exporter of doctors per capita (India is the highest exporter overall). Primary care doctors are especially scarce and the growing need is only getting more out of control.

I have become increasingly passionate about being a part of the primary care advocacy team headed by Dr. Antonio Dans. We will be traveling to Baguio City in a few days to meet with primary care doctors and present the blueprint. We hope to finish a proposal to present before next year's presidential election. The goal is for every Filipino to have a primary care doctor.

If this comes to pass, then Filipinos may not have advanced disease by the time they present to the hospital. Primary care and prevention can help to solve this and I'm extremely enthusiastic and humbled to be a part of this project!

On a lighter note, I visited my great-grandmother in Los Banos, which is about 2 hours outside of Manila. She is 100 years old and still has a BIG appetite and enjoys eating mangoes :-) She is under the care of my Tita Geser, who has dedicated most of her adult life to caring for her. I'm so grateful that she loves Lola Ising so much. It was really wonderful to see her and meet relatives for the first time.

As I become more comfortable with patients, I hope to be able to share more photos while in the hospital.

Thanks for reading :-)

Kyla