The lifelong learner
IN THE field of medicine, urology is generally regarded as a broad discipline. For Dr. Dennis G. Lusaya, this is the very reason why, despite many other specialties, he chose to traverse the path of being a urologist.
“The specialty is unique in itself because it combines everything, medical and surgical. It has numerous subspecialties where lots of things can be studied and learned. In urology, one can have professional growth,” he told Business
World in a recent interview. He went on to explain what makes the realm of urology really interesting and worthy to pursue for him. Urology, he said, exposes a specialist to a varied market, from pediatrics to the elderly. It is unlike some specialties that only focus on a limited pool of patients.
“There are pediatric urology and female urology. There are also urologists who deal with infertility for male. There are others who just do minimally invasive surgery, and there are urologists who like robotics,” he said.
Asked which of these he is into as a urologist, he said that it greatly depends on the strength of the hospital.
For instance, at University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital where he heads both the Subsection of Endourology and the Urologic Oncology Unit, kidney stones and prostate cancer are what usually dealt with, making minimally invasive surgery and prostate cancer early detection screening, treatment and multimodality treatment applicable, according to him.
Meanwhile, at St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) where he serves as chairman of Institute of Urology at SLMC- Quezon City and is primarily responsible for the Male Reproductive Medicine and Microsurgery at SLMC- Global City, all specialties are represented. The Male Reproductive Medicine and Microsurgery, however, is not well represented, he said, so it is where he resolved to branch out as his subspecialty.
Dr. Lusaya received his medical degree from UST, where he also took his residency training in general surgery and urology. After attending his first fellowship training in Urologic Oncology, Endourology and Basic Microsurgery in Melbourne, Australia in 1995, he came back to the Philippines the following year and started teaching at the university. He has been an associate professor at UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery since then.
Juggling his duties as a urologist and his administrative tasks leaves him with the challenge of managing his time well. He said, though, that with the current traffic situation in the metro, going from one hospital to the other is but a real chore for doctors like him.
“When we started in 2010, the travel time was only 30 minutes if you would take EDSA. Right now, the average travel time from Quezon City to reach Bonifacio Global City is 55 minutes,” he related. This eventually made him decide to adjust his clinic visits from daily to just three times a week.
It is seemingly a wise tack in fulfilling the demands of his medical profession, which he said he goes about on a typical day by doing first his rounds, seeing his patients and outpatients and conducting surgeries early in the morning at SLMC- Global City. He then transfers to SLMC- Quezon City by 1 p. m. to do his directorial functions, see his patients and teach his residents. Later in the afternoon he goes to UST to teach his third year medical students, hold clinic and attend urology conferences that are usually held on Tuesdays.
He regards his metier in urology as a lifelong learning opportunity. He admits that, with the practice of medicine changing so fast, what doctors were trained 10 years ago may no longer be applicative and regularly done now.
“In the treatment of prostate diseases, like benign prostate condition, we used to do surgery. Now we can give medicine to treat the prostate [disease so there are less and less prostate surgeries done]. That is how advanced it is now, so you have to keep up with the times, you have to keep up with the technology. You have to keep updating yourself by doing training, studying,” he emphasized.
To young, aspiring urologists, this is also what he wants to impart as a piece of advice. That they should work hard towards continuous learning and give their all to be the best in their chosen field.