Held Jan 21, 2005 at FEU-NRMF Complex

The strategic session dubbed as “Five-Year Agenda for Innovation and Excellence” for the Far Eastern University Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation, its School of Medicine and Medical Center, held at a Luncheon-Conference January 21, 2004 at the Dr. Ricardo L. Alfonso Conference Room was a great success.

Participants in this 2005 Balik-FEU Homecoming meeting were the officers and members of the FEU-DNR School of Medicine alumni Foundation, the FEU-NRMF Medical alumni Society, the Dean, chairmen of departments, and faculty members of the Institute of Medicine, and the hospital director and heads of the clinical departments of the Medical Center.

Philip S. Chua, M.D., FACS, FPCS, immediate past chairman of the board of the FEU-DNR School of Medicine Alumni Foundation and a Board Trustee of the FEU-Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation, presented his controversial paper, a candid perspective, on “The Crisis in Medical Education and Healthcare Delivery in the Philippines.” This served as the prelude to the open forum.

The “Current and Future Directions” of the Institute of Medicine and the Hospital were presented by Acting Dean Remedios T. Habacon, M.D. and hospital director Reynaldo B. De Vega, M.D.

Rolando Casis, M. D., Chairman, and Arsenio Martin, M. D., President, of the Alumni Foundation, discussed the Alumni Foundation’s role, existing projects and programs as they relate to the FEU-NRMF medical complex.

Ernesto dela Cerna, President of the FEU-NRMF Alumni Medical Society, gave his views on exploring mutual cooperation and joint venturing with the alumni foundation in the United States, in providing assistance to the Institute of Medicine and the FEU-NRMF Medical Center.

Daniel Fabito, M.D., bared the alumni foundation’s plan for a center for postgraduate medical education.

The conference was moderated by Daniel Fabito, M.D., and Edmundo Relucio, M.D., and the open forum by Renato Ramos, M.D., all past chairman of the FEU DNRSMAF. The deliberation was serious, lively and, sometimes passionate.

But the essence of the conference was summed in the parting words of Dr. Chua, who reminded the participants, that “we are a family; when alumni from abroad ask questions, they are not questioning; rather, they would like to be educated about the local situation in order to identify the problems confronting our Alma Matrer and its Medical Center, through the eyes of the local alumni, in order for us, from abroad, to be of greater help. After all, we are family.”