Pinoy doc's fight vs diabetes on via pioneering institute

MANILA, Philippines – In 1957, a 28-year-old internal medicine specialist named Dr. Ricardo Fernando warned against a looming diabetes mellitus epidemic in the country. His warning was dismissed by skeptical health experts and ignored by a complacent Filipino populace.

Today, one out of five Filipinos aged 30 or older is either diabetic or on the verge of becoming one. By 2030, the Philippines is expected to gain the dubious reputation of having the ninth highest prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the world.

It seems that a prophet is indeed never accepted in his own land. Yet Fernando, who turns 80 this year, remains committed to playing the role of “David” in the fight against the “Goliath” that is diabetes mellitus. Last June 16, the Institute for Studies on Diabetes Foundation Inc. (ISDFI) founded by Fernando — the first school in the world that offers a masteral degree in diabetology — will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

“It has been a tough, often lonely journey to where we are now, but the fight is far from over. We will continue spreading the gospel of diabetes prevention and treatment through healthcare professionals who share a passion to serve Filipino diabetics and their families,” says Fernando.

Hindered by chronic lack of funds, public indifference and professional persecution, Fernando turned to like-minded colleagues and a few pharmaceutical companies for moral and logistical support.

Through the 1970s, he trudged across the archipelago holding what would be endearingly called “the Fernando lectures,” warning Filipinos against the impending diabetes epidemic and sharing his knowledge about preventing and treating the disease, decades before health awareness campaigns became in vogue.

For Fernando, the nationwide lecture series was a physically exhausting, financially unrewarding but personally fulfilling task.

In 1989, the ISDFI welcomed its first batch of internal medicine specialists enrolled in the pioneering program offered by the institute, the two-year Master of Science in Internal Medicine, Major in Diabetes Mellitus, graduates of which would eventually be called “diabetologists.” The program drew both praise and criticism. Detractors demanded the shutdown of the ISDFI. Past presidents of the American Diabetes Association visited the fledgling school and marveled at how a landmark undertaking could be achieved in a developing nation.

Fernando and the institute weathered the storm. In 2004, ISDFI moved from its original 100-square-meter office site generously provided by the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center to a new 5,000-square-meter site in Marikina City.

To date, the ISDFI has produced 300 graduates who have set up diabetes clinics in strategic areas of the country, spreading knowledge about diabetes prevention and providing optimal treatment to patients afflicted with the disease.

 The institute’s network of committed advocates continues to grow among doctors, nurses, dieticians, clinical psychologists, social workers, and other allied health care professionals throughout the country.

It has spawned several successful organizations, among them the Nutritionists and Dieticians Association of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Diabetes Educators of the Philippines, Philippine Society of Diabetologists, and the ISDFI-Center for Diabetes Care (CDC) Network.

On June 20-27, the ISDFI will celebrate its Foundation Day in various sites in Marikina City with the theme “80/20” in honor of the institute’s 20th anniversary and its founder’s 80th birthday.

The celebration highlights include a Fun Walk, free blood sugar/diabetes complications screening and lay forum, preventive diabetology workshop for doctors, and several social events.

The celebration is being supported by various pharmaceutical companies, including Pharmalink, makers of the widely prescribed anti-diabetes drug Humamet (metformin).