Doc Toom: Helping med interns Crack D’ Boards

CEBU, Philippines —  "I started off with personal tutorials and small group reviews with medical interns."

Cebuano internist and neurologist Jarungchai Anton Vatanagul recalled to the time when he and her wife Michele, also an internal medicine and aesthetics specialist, were taking their medical reviews and the board back then in Manila in 2003.

Both belonged to the same batch during their postgraduate internship and that journey eventually brought them to become couple doctors.

In September 2003, "Doc Toom" as he's usually called started off by giving special tutorial classes to three aspiring medical students preparing for the February 2004 board examinations.

How It Started

"I started with tutorials in 2003. I would have two to three students tutored in a coffee shop or restaurant. By 2005 I gave board reviews for postgraduate interns in Cebu whenever I was off duty from residency training," he said.

After the three students passed, more students had asked for his tutorial services and little did he know, that became the start of his journey in building his own medical review center, now known as Cracking D' Boards (CDB) Study and Review Center.

"We personally understood the need for a medical review center based in Cebu," the 41-year-old neurology specialist told The FREEMAN in an interview at his clinic at the Perpetual Succour Hospital in Cebu City.

He knew the costs of having to fly to Manila just for the review as he and his wife did during the time of their boards.

"I wanted to provide Cebuanos as well as aspiring physicians from Visayas and Mindanao the option not to go to Manila so as to minimize expenses like dorm, plane fares and meals," Doc Toom said.

It was in June 2006 when the first six subject board review series catering to the postgraduate interns from Chong Hua Hospital, Perpetual Succour Hospital and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center was established.

“Word spread very fast and students were now contacting me to conduct reviews," he recalled.

In the same year, Doc Toom brought the review series to Quezon City, Manila at the time when he was pursuing his subspecialty in neurology. His first in-house (stay-in) review program started with only five students.

In 2007, the in-house program increased students to 38, who held classes in Doc Toom’s living room -- a make-shift classroom only 40 square-meter big with two electric fans and monobloc chairs.

Weeks after the exam results came out, CDB already had 138 students prompting a transfer to a new and bigger classroom along E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue across St. Luke’s Medical Center at that time. A total of four sections comprised the August 2009 Manila cluster.

In 2010, Doc Toom made a big decision to migrate back to Cebu to further grow his review center business.

The August 2010 in-house review was already held in Cebu in its new home at the three-storey Bathan Realty Building  in Canduman, Mandaue City.

This is also the time when Doc Toom and Doc Michele, 43, ventured into dormitory and catering services to provide their in-house students an easy lifestyle. They set up their Med Hauz Dormitory and Gourmet Secrets Catering Services at the time of significant influx of medical students and clamor for the need of quality medical review centers in Cebu. CDB decided to expand in order to meet these growing demands.

In May 2012, the new three-storey CDB building that houses the Med Hauz Dormitory opened its doors to the August 2012 in-house reviewees.

Over the years, the Mandaue City-based review center now caters to an average 500-600 medical students every review period, which happens twice a year.

Since its inception, it has already produced over 7,000 licensed physicians, with one of the highest passing rates in the industry.

Recently, the couple doctors merged their expertise and built a new venture, the Beauty & Brains, located at their Perpetual clinic, specializing in neurology and aesthetics.

Doc Toom shared that there is an increasing trend in enrolment in most medical schools in the country, six of which are found in Cebu.

“There is indeed a demand for more physicians in the country. In fact there is still a significant imbalance with the number of physicians who can deliver basic medical services to Filipinos. Sadly, there is still a great number of Filipinos who do not have access to basic health care and physician consultations,” he said.

He also added that they remain open to feedback from their students and clients.

“We always believe that there is an opportunity to improve and give better services. We are in tune with the growing needs of our clientele. In the center we update our curriculum regularly with the latest medical textbooks and trending diseases and clinical pearls. In our Beauty & Brains Clinic both Dr. Michele and I update ourselves with the latest clinical trainings and workshops locally and internationally so we can offer cutting edge medical and aesthetic services,” Doc Toom said.