Dear colleagues in the Philippine Society of Nephrology,
Thank you for putting your trust in me and the rest of the members of the board of trustees. We humbly accept the challenges and look forward to the opportunities that these challenges will turn into.
More than 35 years ago, maybe, many of you were not yet born then, I had my introduction to the Philippine Society of Nephrology as a fellow in training. At the head of the society then were Drs. Filoteo Alano, Mike Alfiler, Padolina-Perez, Ophelia Buot, Alberto Daysog… They were also almost the same persons who founded our society. They were also the same persons who introduced me to the other great men in Nephrology: Dr. Dimitri Oreopoulous, the father of peritoneal dialysis, Dr. Wadi Suki, author of Nephrology reference books, Dr. Mitchell Halperin, renal physiologist and many more. They came to our country foremost to update us on the latest knowledge in nephrology, but they established friendship and the love for the discipline and gave honor to our society with their presence. And now we are looking forward to a great golden year which is going to start next year building upon the foundations started by our founders. we will indeed continue their legacy. The Bahay na Bato that we built which now houses 917 members who are champions of kidney health and 4 loyal staff stands strong upon the foundations of integrity and the pride of its members.
We are now facing this huge and unprecedented crisis that has devastated the lives of people and brought down world economy. From amongst our patients, the ones who were hit the hardest are the hemodialysis patients. Some of them get displaced when their units closed because of lack of manpower or simply because their local government units forced their closure because of the detection of SARS Cov 2 among patients or health care workers. But the PSN membership rose to the challenge and showed full force solidarity and support. They absorbed the displaced patients and some units offered their services to COVID-19 positive patients notwithstanding the dangers and expenses involved. Yes, this may not have been the best of times but it certainly brought out the best in us. However, it will still take a concerted effort to address the problems and we will be relentless in communicating, coordinating and working with the various agencies of the government. We will also partner with other societies to provide guidelines in the management of our patients. As Mother Teresa said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create a ripple”.
The training program of our fellows is also affected. There will be more exposure to critically ill patients with their attendant fluid, electrolyte and AKI problems, and extracorporeal modalities and less face to face outpatient consultations. But technologies have made it possible for remote consultations. Conferences have become virtual but this resulted in better attendance from the consultants and probably more exchange of knowledge and ideas between mentors and mentees. Researches become more relevant because the available materials are mostly on COVID cases. Accreditations were done online but this did not change the quality of the evaluation. In the end, the quality of training will still remain as it was in the pre-pandemic era.
But as we focus on the effects of the SARS corona virus, we will continue working on our advocacies and projects. One of them is our Green Nephrology program. We have the duty to conserve our natural resources and protect our environment. Our practice takes a great toll on our environment. We consume a lot of water and electricity and we generate tons of liquid and solid wastes. With the pandemic, more wastes are generated – the masks, the face shields and goggles, the PPEs, etc. Let us recycle as much as possible. Let it be in our consciousness that we need to reduce the amount of wastes that we generate.
The second is the Preventive Nephrology program. While we focus on the patients that we see: the patients on dialysis, the transplanted patients, those with AKI and CKDs, those with fluid and electrolyte problems there are patients who we do not see – yet. They are the ones who do not have kidney problems, but who may have one day. It is our greatest obligation to keep them kidney disease free. We will strengthen our partnership with our mother societies, the PCP and the PPS, and with other specialty societies esp. the diabetes and hypertension societies. We will also forge strong relationships with the General Medicine and Family Medicine practitioners, for after all, they may be the first physicians who will see our future patients. We know the power of the social media. We will utilize them. We will be friends with media influencers. We will keep our countrymen well informed and empowered to take care of their health.
The 3rd is disaster preparedness. Calamities come like a thief in the night. We must be ready for them. Most of the time, the Nephrologists become victims too. We had created various task forces for rapid response to calamities and disaster. And we’re treating this pandemic as a disaster too so we have now formed a task force COVID.
The fourth is the pediatric to adult nephrology transition program. Because of the care that our Pediatric Nephrologists give to their patients, a lot of them reach adulthood. We will not neglect this vulnerable group of patients and eventually, we hope to get the transition program incorporated in all the accredited training institutions manual.
We have our duty to our country. Our duty is to provide kidney health to everyone. And we need more nephrologists to serve our people. It is for this reason that we encourage you to open a nephrology training program in your area. Pls become not just clinicians but also mentors too. We also encourage board eligibles to become board certified. We should stand strong as champions of kidney health so that our patients will not strain the financial resources of our country.
Of course, we should not forget our duties to ourselves. We have a right to have a comfortable life, a happy family, a position of respect in the society. But beyond these, it is our duty to continue enriching ourselves through various scientific activities and discourses with our colleagues. We have scientific lectures in our webinar series every Wednesday. Please do attend them. Open the PSN website more often. We not only communicate with you through the PSN website but we also post our webinars and other educational materials there. Let us also work together to protect the constitution of the PSN and incorporate the PCP and PSN code of ethics in our daily lives.
I had the joy and privilege of working with most of the present members of the board. We can rely on the wisdom of Dr. Noel Castillo, our vice president. Dingdong Biruar was our treasurer and he had guarded our financial resources astutely. He will guard the membership with the same zeal as secretary. He is also a board regent of the Philippine College of Physicians and this will facilitate our collaborations with the mother society. Oh, we all love Ginger Samonte, now our treasurer. She is the life of the Family day celebration every June, the PSN website, the organizer of almost all celebrations. Ric Francisco and Phel Esmaquel are our rock and strength. Ric is the head of the Training program accreditation board and is in to almost every issue concerning the society. Phel is crucial in the establishment of the Grievance guideline for the society. Dr. Vimar Luz, the multifaceted nephrologist – he has headed the Research Board so well, leading the multicenter study on COVID and coming up with the various multidisciplinary guidelines on hypertension, lipids, transplantation in the times of the COVID. Invaluable are the contributions that each of them gave to the discussions and most of the time we can no longer delineate the positions each was assigned to. The new member of the board is Dr. Arlene Lamban who brings in the freshness and brightness of her personality. She is a stalwart of peritoneal dialysis, kidney transplantation and the protection of organ donors. Dr. Reden Silva is the Chapter representative. He will be the voice of the different chapters. His leadership has been honed by the many challenges of the Southern Tagalog chapter. The Pedia Nephro is represented by the president of the PNSP, the sweet, very gentle and charismatic Dr. Rose Cabansag. Of course, Dr. Beth Roasa whose outstanding leadership had been tested will still sit in the board and will be our guiding light.
General Colin Powell said: There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” We in the board of trustees promise to prepare and work hard following the footsteps of our predecessors. Hopefully, may our failures be few but we will learn from them, rise above them and take them as opportunities to improve our decisions and strategies.
And so, with the blessings of our God Almighty and your continuous support, we will overcome the challenges ahead of us. We will maintain a strong society which our founders will be mighty proud of.
ELIZABETH S. MONTEMAYOR, MD
President 2020 – 2021
