Background: While COVID‑19 spreads rapidly around the world, innovative means to provide continuing prenatal care are being developed to monitor maternal and fetal health while minimizing disease transmission. Telemedicine is one platform by which patients are provided the necessary prenatal and postpartum care safely as the pandemic rages Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the acceptability of telemedicine in the delivery of prenatal and postnatal care in the setting of the COVID‑19 pandemic Materials and Methods: A cross‑sectional study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Manila. A structured Likert scale‑based survey consisting of a model measuring telemedicine perception was utilized. This was a predeveloped model by Lin in 2017.[1] Descriptive statistical analysis and Chi‑square tests were done to evaluate the data Results: A total of 193 pregnant and postpartum patients participated in the study. Majority of the respondents were between 25 and 34 years old, living within Metro Manila, and normal obstetric patients who were previously seen at the outpatient department. Most of the participants considered telemedicine to be cost‑effective, reliable, easy to use, and useful Conclusion We conclude that telemedicine is an acceptable means of providing prenatal and postnatal care among pregnant patients because it allowed the necessary interaction between patient and doctor and these “users” kept on using the system. There was no association between telemedicine perceptions and patient age, place of residence, type of patient encounter, disease, and treatment. In the setting of the COVID‑19 pandemic, telemedicine is an acceptable means of providing prenatal and postnatal care regardless of patient characteristics
COVID‑19 ; Pandemics ; Postnatal Care ; Prenatal Care ; Telemedicine

INTRODUCTION: Almost half of adult Filipinos were unwilling to receive the COVID-19 vaccination in early 2021. This study aimed to describe the COVID-19 vaccination experience in the Greater Manila Area. METHODS: An analytical cross-sectional study design was done where Filipinos aged 18-60 years old residing in the Greater Manila Area answered an online survey. Fisher’s exact test was used to compute p-values for the association between participants’ willingness or refusal to get vaccinated and their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: Among 1,248 respondents, 97.92% were willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The majority who refused strongly agreed that the vaccine could cause serious side effects (46.2%). Being a college graduate (OR = 3.03, p = 0.006) and high income (OR = 5.06, p = 0.003) had a statistically significant positive association with willingness to get vaccinated. CONCLUSION There are more individuals willing to get vaccinated and there is a statistically significant association between educational attainment and monthly income with vaccine willingness or refusal.

Background: The global pandemic caused by COVID-19, the subsequent improvement in health situation caused by anti- COVID-19 vaccination and the developments in digital technology prompted changes in undergraduate medical education as to content delivery and assessment. This study determined the difference in the performance of first year medical students in traditional face-to face, online and Hyflex teaching strategy. Methods: A non-concurrent cohort study was done to determine the performance of students in three annual subjects in Year 1 undergraduate medical education for school years 2018 to 2023. One-way ANOVA at p=0.001 determined significance of differences of variables. Results: There was no difference in the profile of students as to their sex, pre-medicine course and scores in the National Medical Admission Test (NMAT). The performance in the written examinations in Anatomy and Physiology showed significant difference (p=0.001) when the conduct of examinations was shifted online on an emergency basis. There was no difference (p=0.001) in performance in the laboratory conference sessions in Physiology, as compared to the focused group discussion sessions in Biochemistry and practical examinations in Anatomy. Conclusion Significant difference in the performance of first year medical students was observed only during the emergency shift to online examinations, otherwise the performance was similar in traditional face-to face, online and Hyflex teaching strategy.