Alumni Milestones

MANILA – The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced on Thursday that 20 out of 38 passed the Metallurgical Engineer Licensure Examination given this month.

Agustin Dominic Escaño Laplana of University of the Philippines Diliman topped the exams with a rating of 86.85 percent.

The examinations were conducted in Cagayan De Oro and Manila.

See the full list of passers here.

Source: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/07/21/up-diliman-grad-tops-metallurgical-engineer-board-exams

Jeffrey Ng, president of Cathay Land Inc., is leading the country’s biggest business conference in November, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) announced today.

Jeffrey, as he is called by colleagues in business, was unanimously appointed the Chairman of the 47^th Philippine Business Conference & Expo (PBC&E) by the PCCI Board of Trustees headed by its President Benedicto V. Yujuico.

The PBC&E is an annual summit of the country’s business and industry captains from all over the country. It is a venue for business-to-business, business-to-customers, business-to-government networking. It provides the platform for business leaders, policy makers, and development partners to share and exchange ideas on potentials and challenges facing business and its ecosystem.

Each year, the PCCI selects a theme based on trends shaping the development and evolving needs of business and the economy. The theme of this year’s PBC&E is “innovation.ph: Economic Recovery for All.” Discussions will focus on policies and programs to build a strong foundation for a more sustainable and resilient future.

Explaining the selection of Mr. Ng, PCCI President Amb. Benedicto Yujuico said, “Jeffrey’s economics background and pioneering business ventures spanning over three decades were the primary consideration in selecting him as Chair of the 47^th PBC&E.”

Mr. Ng is an Economics Cum Laude graduate of University of the Philippines Diliman with a Master’s Degree in Business Economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific. He is currently President of UP School of Economics Alumni Association (UPSEAA). He is a Board member of Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF). He is also the President of Cathay Land, Inc., (developer of South Forbes Golf City), the Astoria Hotels and Resorts, and Cathay Metal Corp. (steel manufacturing).

“Jeffrey is visionary in real estate and property development. For instance, he knew early on that the urban sprawl of Metro Manila would extend outside the metropolis, so he ventured in land-banking in the South and developed new thriving townships in Cavite,” Mr. Yujuico added.

“I am extremely honored with the appointment and I thank (President) Dickie and the entire PCCI Board for the trust. I am excited to lead the staging of the conference despite and because of the challenging situation we are in. The PBC has always strived to be relevant in raising the concerns of the business sector and bringing about resolutions that would help address these concerns. I am glad we are now seeing a whole of society and whole of government approach as we recover from the pandemic. Hopefully, through the PBC, I can contribute to the putting together of innovative solutions as we recover and build better and smarter,” Mr. Ng said.

This year’s conference will be held on Nov. 17-18, 2021. It will present and discuss how Innovation has become a catalyst to reboot the economy and accelerate growth to recover lost grounds and catch up with Ambisyon 2040’s goal for the country to become a middle-income economy in 20 years.

Among the highly anticipated segments of the conference is a session with pioneers and global leaders in innovation and technology, and one with the 2022 Presidentiables. The conference will conclude with the presentation of the business sector’s wish list to government.

Source: https://www.bworldonline.com/pcci-names-cathay-lands-jeffrey-ng-as-47th-pbce-chair/

Rainier Allan Ronda – The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — A 24-year-old doctor and coconut processing company executive has developed a combined virgin coconut oil (VCO) and lagundi mouth and nasal spray formula that can be a potent protection against – if not potential cure – for COVID-19.

Dr. Sterling Tiu, company doctor at his family’s coconut processing business Tropicana Food Products Inc. based in San Pablo City, Laguna, said that the combination of lagundi and VCO addresses both the cough symptoms and viral replication issues in COVID-19 cases.

“We’re in the process of applying for a patent,” Tiu told The STAR in an exclusive interview over the weekend.

To come up with the potentially new patented product, Tiu had added lagundi to their company’s patented VCO with menthol mouth spray and nasal spray which is enjoying phenomenal sales during the still persisting pandemic.

“We’re gonna market it as C-Shield. It’s still gonna be an all-natural product,” Tiu, who earned his medical degree at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and passed the board exams last November then took his oath in December at the age of 23, said.

“Basically the ingredients are all organic, but as far as certifying (it as organic), I do not think it’s necessary,” Tiu said, explaining that the mouth spray will be marketed as a cosmetic product.

The nasal spray, he admitted, will need approval from the Food and Drug Administration as a prophylactic.

Tiu pointed out that the results of separate clinical studies funded by the Department of Science and Technology on both lagundi and VCO as adjunct therapies for COVID-19 have successfully shown the efficacies of both in addressing respiratory difficulties and viral replication from mild to moderate cases of the coronavirus.

He pointed out that lagundi has already established its efficacy as a cough remedy.

“Because it is part of the 10 medicinal plants recommended by Department of Health, lagundi has been studied locally for its effects against cough, sipon (colds)… and many scientific studies has shown its good effects in relieving cough symptoms,” Tiu said. “It reduces inflammation, it has antihistamine effects. It relieves cough, it suppresses cough.”

And since the plant is readily available locally, they decided to add it for more efficacy to the spray.

“VCO, we know through recent studies last year, has been shown to prevent the disease from proceeding from mild to moderate or severe COVID, and also it has helped in the recovery of the mild to moderate COVID patients, to recover more quickly than the control (group) which did not receive virgin coconut oil,” Tiu said.

“So with that in mind, we believe virgin coconut oil had helped in fighting the COVID virus,” he said, stressing the importance of the spray’s formulation “because the COVID virus replicates in the upper respiratory epithelium.”

He said the product could be effective particularly against breakthrough infections.

“So, we wanted to have a product that helps to limit the viral replication in the upper respiratory tract, and thus, we have this new formulation,” Tiu said.

Source: https://bit.ly/3iDYiU2

Depicted in films, books, and science fiction stories as a means to bring doom to humans, Artificial Intelligence (AI) actually can significantly change medicine and healthcare.

In a report, the World Health Organization (WHO) describes how leveraging AI for healthcare holds great promise or potential. This potential is exactly what Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Dr. Paolo Antonio Silva and his team are exploring with their current project on diabetic retinopathy.

Under the Newton Agham Program of the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) and the United Kingdom Medical Research Council (UK-MRC), Dr. Silva’s team launched the UK-Philippines Remote Retinal Evaluation Collaboration in Health: Diabetic Retinopathy or REACH-DR.

On September 21, 2021, the REACH-DR team shared the first successful implementation of a validated AI algorithm in the clinical setting for ophthalmology in the country. Following this significant achievement, Dr. Silva shares their motivation and vision in pursuing the project, and their plans moving forward.

Establishing a telemedicine program for diabetic retinopathy

Building on AI technologies, the REACH-DR project aims to establish the very first inclusive telemedicine screening program for diabetic retinopathy in the country.

“Diabetic retinopathy is the most common complication of diabetes. Despite the availability of highly effective treatment, diabetic retinopathy remains the most common cause of visual loss and blindness among people with diabetes. This emphasizes the need for retinal evaluation.” Dr. Silva explains. “While screening for the disease early on is especially relevant, in-person retinal evaluation in the Philippines is not always possible, due to lack of access to medical facilities that is worsened by geographic, social and cultural constraints.”

Deriving inspiration from the success of a DR screening program in the UK, Dr. Silva’s team set out to launch a similar project here in 2019. “One of the greatest success stories in diabetes eye care is the United Kingdom’s National Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme. In 2014, for the first time in five decades, diabetic retinopathy was no longer the leading cause of legal blindness in the working-age population in England and Wales, due to the early detection of diabetic retinopathy by screening, along with improved control of blood sugar levels.”

The team aims to implement a national DRSP in the country by completing three phases: 1) developing the necessary infrastructure by analyzing and validating existing telemedicine technology, 2) adapting the selected technologies into the Philippine setting, and 3) completing the technology transfer to the Philippine stakeholders.

If successful, “the UK REACH DR program will help to identify eyes at high risk for losing sight, and this will have a direct benefit for individuals,” Dr. Silva says. “An additional benefit will be the promotion of awareness for the need for eye evaluations which will significantly improve the overall level of eye care and reduce the risk of diabetes-related visual loss among people with diabetes,” he added.

The first validated AI algorithm in the clinical setting for ophthalmology in PH

Now in its third year of implementation, the project achieved a significant milestone last week. “September 21, 2021, marks the first use of a validated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm in a clinical setting for ophthalmology in the Philippines,” Dr. Silva shares. “Our REACH-DR team with the use of AI has successfully performed and completed diabetic retinopathy screening in a target community in Nueva Ecija to identify diabetic retinopathy and other vision-threatening retinal diseases.”

This development is a step closer to increasing access to retinal screening, which will pave the way for timely and accurate diabetic retinopathy detection.

“Evaluating retinal images is a highly skilled process, which requires training, continuous quality control, and maintenance of a specialized skill set. As trained retinal image readers are costly and difficult to train with limited numbers worldwide, it has become a necessity to seek automation processes in ocular telemedicine to increase throughput while maintaining cost-effectiveness and accuracy.”

The project will run until next year, June 2022, with the completion of the screening of the target population and is expected to provide the framework for the future implementation of diabetic retinopathy screening programs in the Philippines.

With the nearing completion of the project, Dr. Silva highlights how conducting health research provides “opportunities to answer dilemmas unaddressed for many years.”

“Health research changes lives and makes the world we live in much better than it is,” he says.
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Dr. Paolo Antonio S. Silva is a staff ophthalmologist and the chief of telemedicine at the Beetham Eye Institute of the Joslin Diabetes Center. He is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and a research collaborator and faculty at the Philippine Eye Research Institute.

Source: https://bit.ly/3uFaZ5X