The Philippine Heart Center (PHC) and the Children’s Heart Foundation, in partnership with B. Braun Medical Supplies, recently launched the country’s first advanced Cardio Thoracic Surgery Skills Lab at the Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Training and Education, which is poised to advance the medical education on cardio thoracic surgery in the Philippines.
The opening of the Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Training and Education is a testament to PHC’s commitment to elevating the standard of healthcare in the Philippines. This new center will serve as a skills and surgery training center, which will be equipped to provide skills simulation, proctorship, and observation, as well as live surgery.
Apart from this, the Philippine Heart Center is also taking strides towards addressing common healthcare services problems, including long waiting lists and recovery periods of patients, long operation times for surgeons, and reducing the turnaround time of the health care process and surgery altogether.
With the new training center, the PHC does not only aim to promote continuing medical education for medical personnel, particularly with regard to minimally invasive cardio thoracic surgery, it also hopes to improve the overall experience of Filipino patients from consultation to recovery.
“With cardiovascular diseases rising as one of the top causes of death in the country, it is only apt that we tap into various partners in the private sector to leverage on their expertise and technology in order to improve our health care system and provide better services to Filipinos,” said Dr. Gerardo Manzo of Philippine Heart Center. “We are optimistic that opening the training center, in partnership with the B Braun Medical Supplies, will allow us to improve the quality of life of patients and elevate the standard for cardio thoracic surgery in the Philippines and the whole Asia-Pacific region.”
The short courses designed by both B. Braun and the Philippine Heart Center will be taught by faculty comprised of Philippine medical professionals as well as foreign experts from ASEAN and European region.
In order to facilitate the medical education at the Center of Excellence in Cardiovascular Training and Education, the facility will be equipped with B. Braun Medical Supplies’ latest innovations—the AESCULAP® 3D EinsteinVision® and the AESCULAP® Valve XS.
These technologies aim to equip medical professionals with improved visualization and depth perception of the operating field, which makes it possible for cardiac surgeons to perform open heart surgeries through smaller incisions. This means that patients are now able to recover faster, as compared to conventional open-heart procedures.
“B. Braun Medical Supplies believes that providing continuing medical education among Filipino medical professionals will allow to boost the overall health in the country, especially that the rate for cardio thoracic surgeries is increasing in the Philippines,” says B. Braun Medical Supplies Managing Director Lih Chyun Yeong.
To date, 21 medical professionals have been trained at the newly inaugurated center found at the 5th floor of the Medical Arts Building of the Philippine Heart Center, and will continue to train more in the coming months, as well as potentially establish more health center in other provinces.