Lung Center ties up with Taiwan Hospital in pulmonary medicine & surgery
The Philippines has moved one step further in cutting-edge services in pulmonary medicine and surgery in the country with the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Taipei Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP).
The MOA signing held in Taipei on November 26 was forged between the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare represented by Superintendent Jiin-Chyr Hsu and the Lung Center of the Philippines represented by its Hospital Director, Dr. Jose Luis J. Danguilan, Present during the signing were Dr. Antonio Ramos, Administrative and Ancillary Department manager of the LCP and Dr. Mario Esquillo of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Unit of the same hospital who was instrumental in forging the mutual cooperation between the two hospitals.
The agreement covers a broad range of cooperation in training and research which will keep LCP, the only tertiary government hospital for pulmonary and other chest diseases in the Philippines abreast with its Asian neighbors in advanced services in pulmonary medicine and surgery.Taiwan is known for its advanced technology and techniques in handling and managing esophageal and lung diseases. It also has the highest number of lung transplantations performed in Asia.
The training will also be in preparation for next year's opening of LCP's Esophagus and Swallowing Center which is a multidisciplinary center for the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the esophagus, a facility which is thought to be the first and only one of its kind in the Philippines
At present, four doctors from the LCP are currently training in various subspecialty fields at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) through the Taiwan International Healthcare Training Center. They are: Dr. Jun Paul D. Castolo who is studying Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation or ECMO and lung transplantation; Dr. Armand Gregorio C. Sarmiento on minimally invasive esophagectomy; Dr. Christian King Sorino on non-intubated anesthesia for minimally invasive thoracic surgery; and Dr. Maria Charisma Laborte on Endobronchial Ultrasound or EBUS which is a specialized instrument to visualize the airway and its neighboring structures. ECMO, on the other hand, is used to tide over patients with critical heart and lung failures. The ECMO program at the NTUH is the largest in the world.