New Year
It’s another sunny and hot day in Makati, Metro Manila, The Philippines. Chinese New Yer Celebrations are over, Valentines Day decorations are popping up and it is hot! I am escaping record wet and cold days in California. Our January LMI mission in conjunction with PMSNC is over and I am waiting to take part in another medical mission while taking care of other business here in the capital.
Right now, I am looking at the first sonographic images acquired by the newly POCUS trained midwives from Santa Barbara, Pangasinan - acquired on their own. And how amazed I am! After going through one-on-one and group training they are now “flying solo”. Well, not quite “solo”, they team up in pairs and then submit their images to us for QA and feedback. But still - no one is holding their hands anymore. Yes, the week of in-person teaching was intense, but how much skill have they acquired in that one week!
The project is now in full swing. Theory and practical instruction phases are over, now it is their time to practice. And they started to do so with as much enthusiasm as they displayed when they soaked up all the information given to them. Most did very well already after 2 or 3 days of practical instruction. We were even able to identify some especially talented among them (so-called “super user material”), and of Choruses also some who need a little more help. The enthusiasm was equal among them all, which I personally did not expect. Much of this was due to the motivational abilities of our training trio (Dr David Walton, Connie Santos and Anne Haller). During the current learning phase the POCUS examinations performed will not be used for clinical decision making as per protocol.
It’s hard to express how proud I am of our entire group during this mission. The prenatal care team was just as successful as the ultrasound team. Home visits accompanying midwives in their “Barangays” (the smallest community unit in the Philippines, formerly known as “Barrios”) allowed for identification of their challenges, which were addressed by team leader Dr Seema Shah in several lectures. As it turns out, many of the patients the midwives take care of give birth in a private hospital. Hence the public health midwives see many more patients during their prenatal period than during the actual process of delivery. So focusing on prenatal care became much more important than anticipated.
The students in our data collection teams are currently analyzing the data, some of which will be used to improve the understanding of the mothers repreventive care not just for themselves and the baby, but the entire family.
Exciting stuff, won’t you agree?
Did I even mention the warmth and cordial atmosphere we experienced during this week? Already, we are all looking forward to going back later this year to reinforce what has been learned and build on the achievements for a truly sustainable effect.
It is still too early to declare success. After all, our focus at LMI is on outcomes, not on output. But one thing is for sure: The municipality of Santa Barbara is one step closer to establishing Universal Healthcare (UHC) at the grassroots level.