BACKGROUND

Continuing Medical Education (CME) serves as a cornerstone for maintaining clinical competence and improving patient care. In the Philippines, CME has become increasingly digital, with the UP Med Webinars emerging as a leading platform for physician education over the past decade. Despite this growth, there has been limited evaluation of how well these webinars align with national health priorities, particularly those reflected in PhilHealth hospital admissions and claims data, which provide insights into the country's disease burden and healthcare utilization patterns.

This study aimed to determine the extent to which the topics and reach of UP Med Webinars correspond with the Philippine health system’s most pressing clinical demands. Specifically, it aimed to analyze the trend in number of webinars by year; analyze the distribution of webinar topics by medical field; assess physician attendance as a proxy for clinical interest and engagement; evaluate the alignment between UP Med Webinar content and national health priorities based on PhilHealth’s top conditions, procedures, and reimbursed claims.

The study used a qualitative content analysis of all Continuing Professional Development (CPD)-accredited UP Med Webinars from 2015 to 2024, supported by descriptive statistics. Webinar titles were coded thematically and categorized by topic and medical field. Attendance figures were analyzed to identify high-demand topics. These results were compared with PhilHealth Claims Reports (2020–2024), focusing on the top reimbursed medical diagnoses and procedures, to assess alignment with disease burden and health service delivery trends. These findings can help inform strategic planning for CME programs to ensure they remain responsive to the country's evolving public health needs.

From 2015 to 2024, a total of 686 CPDaccredited UP Med Webinars were conducted, attended by 685,994 participants. The annual number of webinars and attendees steadily increased, peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022) with heightened demand for virtual CME and pandemic-related topics. Internal Medicine consistently emerged as the most frequently covered field, accounting for 54.1% of webinars and 48.8% of total attendance, followed by Obstetrics and Gynecology (14.4% of webinars; 19.6% of attendance) and Pharmacotherapeutics (6.0% of webinars; 6.9% of attendance). Certain fields, including COVID-19 and Psychiatry, attracted disproportionately high attendance despite fewer sessions, indicating strong interest during periods of public health urgency. The top 10 webinar topics included Diabetes, Pregnancy, Cancer, Hypertension, Reproductive Health, COVID-19, Heart Disease, Antimicrobial Treatment, Vertigo, and Vaccination, reflecting a mix of chronic disease management, maternal health, infectious diseases, and emergent health concerns.

Comparison with PhilHealth claims data (2020– 2024) revealed a high disease burden in Internal Medicine, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics, with top medical conditions including Pneumonia, Dengue, Hypertensive emergencies, and Stroke. These findings indicate a strong alignment between the most covered webinar topics and national healthcare utilization trends, particularly in high-burden clinical areas.

Findings suggest that the UP Med Webinars have generally aligned with national health priorities, as indicated by PhilHealth claims data, particularly in highburden fields such as Internal Medicine and Obstetrics. However, gaps in coverage for certain high-priority conditions and procedures point to opportunities for more inclusive and data-driven CME planning. Aligning CME content with evolving health system needs can enhance its relevance, support clinical practice improvements, and ultimately contribute to better population health outcomes in the Philippines.

Human ; Education, Medical, Continuing ; Philippines

Human ; Education, Continuing ; Nursing Research

This reflective paper explored the philosophical foundations of lifelong learning and impactful research in the field of nursing. Anchored in personal experience and supported by scholarly literature, it illustrated the transformative power of continuous learning, the cultivation of research competence, and the moral responsibility of contributing meaningfully to society. A nurse researcher's journey is not defined by awards or accomplishment but by an unwavering dedication to knowledge creation, community involvement, and evidence-based practice. The "emptying one's cup" metaphor embodies intellectual humility, a mindset that keeps the mind open to learning, self-improvement, and meaningful service throughout one's career.

Self-efficacy is central to effective academic nursing leadership since it influences decision-making, resilience, and organizational outcomes. This phenomenological study described the essence of leadership self-efficacy among nurse leaders in Philippine higher education institutions. Using Colaizzi's method, data was collected through semi-structured interviews (n=10) and one focus-group discussion (n = 8). Analysis yielded three interwoven essences: (1) Personal Capacities of a SelfEfficacious Leader (decisiveness, resilience, reflective composure), (2) Relational–Communicative Doing of Leadership (ethical consistency, collaboration, mentoring), and (3) Professional–Organizational Grounding (resource navigation, quality assurance, continuous learning). Recognition indicators of achieved self-efficacy included sustained goal attainment, composed decision-making, entrustment by stakeholders, reduced self-doubt, and ethical consistency. Findings suggested that academic nurse leaders' self-efficacy is a multi-dimensional structure rather than a linear developmental process. Implications were offered for leadership preparation, mentoring, and appraisal.

Background: The close association of lifestyle with the pathogenesis of chronic diseases has been established since early times. Lifestyle medicine provides an evidence-based solution to the Non-communicable disease epidemic. However, physicians do not receive adequate training on lifestyle counseling and intervention in both undergraduate education and graduate medical training. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine whether knowledge and attitude regarding lifestyle medicine and the Physicians’ personal lifestyle practices will determine the presence or absence of lifestyle counseling in their medical practice. Methods: An online survey questionnaire was formed and spread through the internet. The questionnaire consisted of four parts- demographics, physicians’ personal lifestyle practices, their attitudes, and knowledge about Lifestyle Medicine. Ethical approval was granted. Results: Out of 188 respondents, 81.4% were females with mean age ranging between 40-49 years. 49 (26.1%) were residents, 84 (44.7%) were Fellows and the remaining participants were Diplomates. 71.3% and 48.4% of respondents said that they include animal and plant food in their diet. The results regarding attitude and knowledge of the doctors of Lifestyle Medicine were mostly insignificant. Conclusion The study doesn’t only provide information about the knowledge gap and lack of counseling skills but also highlights the urgent need for lifestyle medicine education programs for the new trainees as well as practicing physicians.
lifestyle ; continuing education ; nutrition ; medical education

Virginia Henderson defined that the primary role of nurses for individuals, whether sick or well, is to assist them in regaining their health and promoting their independence in activities of daily living (Halloran, 2018). The gap that is noted in the definition of Henderson’s role of nurses is the lack of direction as to how will a nurse render care that is unique and satisfying to an individual, knowing that the demand of expectation rises. Thus, it motivated this paper to study the concept of the dynamic care nurse. This concept paper utilized Walker and Avant (2005) method of analysis. The attributes associated with the dynamic care nurse are (1) continuous learning; and (2) the utilization of best practices. The antecedents identified include (1) initiative, and (2) compassion (ICN, 2012, Hemberg et al., 2020, Kroning, et al., 2019). Dynamic care nurse exemplifies the attributes of continuous learning and the utilization of best practices. Nurses can bridge the gaps in the practice through these attributes and by possessing initiative and compassion, it is not by afar to achieve a better health care service and positive health outcomes.
Practice Guidelines as Topic ; Education, Continuing ; Nursing Care ; Empathy

Scholarly article writing and publishing in international peer-reviewed journals can become an overwhelming task for many medical, nursing, and healthcare professionals in a university setting, especially in countries whose native language is not English. To help improve their scientific writing skills and publishing capacity, a university-based editing system and writing programs can be developed as educational platforms. These are delivered by a team of specialist editors composed of tenured faculty members who have a strong medical background and extensive experience in teaching courses on medical research, editing, writing, and publishing. For the editing system, the specialist editors provide comprehensive editing, personalized consultation, full editorial support after peer review, guidance with online submissions/resubmissions, and detailed editorial review at different stages of the manuscript writing. In addition, the specialist editors can develop writing programs such as medical writing and editing internships, academic courses in medical writing or research study designs and reporting standards, special interactive lectures and sessions on predatory publishing, seminars on updated editorial guidance of global editorial associations, academic visits on medical writing and editing, medical writing mentoring program, networking programs in scholarly communication, and publication resources in medical writing and scholarly publishing. These editing system and writing programs can serve as integrated platforms for improving scientific writing skills and publishing capacity by providing continuing education in medical writing, editing, publishing, and publication ethics.
Delivery of Health Care ; Education, Continuing ; Ethics ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Lectures ; Medical Writing ; Mentors ; Nursing ; Peer Review ; Publications ; Specialization ; Writing*

No abstract available.
Education, Medical, Continuing ; Social Media

PURPOSE: Discontinuation of offending drugs can prevent drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP) before it occurs and reverse or cure it afterwards. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of DIP and the utilization of offending drugs through an analysis of representative nationwide claims data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We selected DIP patients of ages ranging from 40 to 100 years old with the G21.1 code from the Korean National Service Health Insurance Claims database from 2009 to 2015. The annual standardized prevalence of DIP was explored from 2009 to 2015. Trends were estimated using the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and the Cochran-Armitage test for DIP over the course of 6 years. Additionally, the utilization of offending drugs was analyzed. RESULTS: The annual prevalence of DIP was 4.09 per 100000 people in 2009 and 7.02 in 2015 (CAGR: 9.42%, p<0.001). Levosulpiride use before and after DIP diagnosis showed a clear trend for decreasing utilization (CAGR: −5.4%, −4.3% respectively), whereas the CAGR for itopride and metoclopramide increased by 12.7% and 6.4%, respectively. In 2015, approximately 46.6% (858/1840 persons) of DIP patients were prescribed offending drugs after DIP diagnosis. The most commonly prescribed causative drug after DIP diagnosis was levosulpiride. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of DIP has increased. To prevent or decrease DIP, we suggest that physicians reduce prescriptions of benzamide derivatives that have been most commonly used, and that attempts be made to find other alternative drugs. Additionally, the need for continuing education about offending drugs should be emphasized.
Diagnosis ; Education, Continuing ; Humans ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Metoclopramide ; Parkinson Disease ; Parkinsonian Disorders ; Prescriptions ; Prevalence