Batch 62: it was a very good year

MANILA, Philippines - When everyone in the University of the Philippines (UP) Medicine Class 1962 passed the board exams with flying colors, people said it was a portent of things to come.

For 50 years, the members of Batch ’62 pioneered in various medical fields and excelled in medicine in the Philippines and in the US.

Perhaps the most popular member of this batch is Health Secretary Enrique Ona, former executive director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, a post he held for 11 years, and president of the Transplantation Society of the Philippines since 1989. He also holds a medical license in the state of Massachusetts.

Batch ’62 alumni Eugenio Picazo, who reported the first use in the country of non-preoperative Chiba needle, said their batch has produced four excellent neurosurgeons –  Roel Romero, Renato Sibayan, Ramon Suter and Fidel Seneris.

Aside from passing the medical board exams, the whole class also passed the examination for foreign medical graduates in January 1962, which explains why a majority of the doctors migrated to and practiced in the US.

Among the notable alumni are Vitaliano Bernardino Jr., who is president of the UP Medical Alumni Society in America; Lilian Gonzalez who is the national president of the American Medical Women’s Association; Carmelita Mangilit and Celina Sison who were listed among America’s Top Pediatricians by the Consumer Research Council of America; and Adolf Orina who was triple-boarded in anatomic and clinical pathology and in hematology, the first Asian certified in hematology in the whole US.

In New York, Antonio Calanog is the only Filipino-American certified in gynecologic oncology. Josephine Fernandez is an acknowledged US-trained wellness consultant & specialist.

Desiderio Hebron Jr. was commended for being a pioneer in the establishment of ambulatory care centers in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1983 and in Spotsylvania, Virginia in 1988.

Dr. Lim was a fellow in biophysics at MIT, then bio-engineering at the University of Washington and Fellow in physiology at University of California in San Francisco. He became chief investigator of bio-engineering at the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, aside from being a neuroradiologist at UCLA.

Gilda Morillo, on the other hand, was a fellow in human genetics (HG) at Cornell University and clinical assistant professor of pediatrics (genetics) at Columbia University in New York.

A big number of Batch ’62  came back to the Philippines to impart what they have learned in Ivy League medical schools.

Reginaldo Picache was an assistant professor at Loyola University when he decided to come home to help his fellow Filipinos. He performed the first successful kidney transplants in the Philippines from 1971 to the mid 70’s at Capitol Medical, Makati Medical and Philippine General hospitals.

Both kidney specialists, Picache and Ona won the TOYM award in 1971 and 1979, respectively.

In the field of nephrology, Filoteo Alano Jr. and Claver Ramos were the first to organize the Philippine Society of Nephrology in 1971, giving nephrology the credentials to be a recognized subspecialty. 

Alano started the dialysis programs in PGH, Capitol, Medical City, Lourdes and Polymedic hospitals, and served as editor-in-chief of the Philippine Journal of Nephrology.

Ramos was the first doctor to establish the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI).

In the field of critical care medicine, two names stood out – Diosdado Garcia and Ramos.

Even before the term critical care medicine became popular, Garcia was already a pioneer and dominant “intensivist” in his area as the first head of ICU in Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and later in St. John Medical Center in Steubenville, Ohio.

Garcia trained in internal medicine and cardiology and took a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Toronto in 1966 and at the Shock Unit of Max Weil in 1968 in the US, one of the few in the world.

Garcia was also the first to use central venous pressure, Swan-Ganz and positive end expiratory pressure in his hospitals.

His expertise in managing critically ill patients with multi-organ failure attracted patients and trainees to Makati Medical Center.

In the field of family planning and population control, Virgilio Oblepias was a pioneer. In 1972, he introduced laparoscopic bilateral tubal ligation under local anesthesia as an outpatient procedure. He also introduced reanastomosis of the fallopian tubes by microsurgery.

There were also Batch ’62 members who went into teaching.Among them are Roel Romero and Pilar Batalla.

Romero became the chief of neurosurgery at UP-PGH & Capitol Medical Center while Batalla became an assistant professor in radiation oncology at University of Massachussetts.

Jose Cheng, aside from his specialty in endocrinology and metabolism, had a doctorate in experimental medicine from McGill University.

Some members of UP Medicine Batch ‘62 went on to become inventors.

Melecia Antonio invented and produced the low-cost quality antibiotic sensitivity discs, while  Pilar Batalla used a portable pump-driven chemotheraphy to treat liver cancer in 1970.

Renato Sibayan, chief of neurosurgery at UST, invented the widely used PCHRD/Chu-Sibayan cerebrospinal fluid shunt and six other neurosurgical devices.

After finishing Dermatology and Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Tranquilino Fajardo Jr. became known as the leprosy expert in Cebu, and author/co-author of 53 articles in international journals, and presented papers in international fora.

Paraluman Quietson excelled in the field of forensic pathology. Her prominent cases include the Menendez brothers who murdered their millionaire parents in California; David Koresh massacre in Waco, Texas and Delia Maga/Flor Contemplacion case in  Singapore.

The batch knows how to give back to their alma mater and to the community. Recently they donated two small buildings within the UP College of Medicine grounds and a Gawad Kalinga Village of 25 homes in Quezon City named after the class.