Abat: The running doctor

METICULOUS in his chosen profession and passionate in his sport, Dr. Ricardo B. Audan talks about how he promotes healthy lifestyle not only within the hospital premises, but on the road as well.

Dr. Audan, the OIC Chief of Clinics at the Southern Philippines Medical Center and president of Team Titans Davao (TTD), maps out plans and liaisons with the Chief of Hospital to manage the operations in the different clinics of SPMC. He has also been at the helm of TTD for almost eight months now and since then the team has always been well represented in numerous fun run and marathon events in Davao City.

The list of Audan's accomplishment in the medical field just goes on and on and he seems to be so busy with his hospital work. But in 2011, Audan fell in love with the sport of running. He then became a regular participant of different fun runs in the city and in January 2012, he joined Team Titans Manila.

April 30, 2012 then saw the founding of TTD with 13 initial members, who eventually became officers as the number of members continues to grow.

"The objective Team Titans is to make running a rehabilitation and to promote a healthy lifestyle. We also want to share the true spirit of running and how we enjoy it. Within the team, we inspire each other to push ourselves and beat our personal records," Audan said.

Audan managed to get the team to train with premiere running sensations such as Skechers ambassadress Michelle Estuar and national coach Siosan Baysa.

Since then, elite runners such as Brian Lupio, Cynthia Jaro, Ronald Dagaang, James Castillo emerged and started dominating different running competitions not only in Mindanao but in other regions in Luzon and Visayas as well.

"I am really proud of my team. In fact, I love my team. Every time they win in competitions they inspire the whole team to excel and push harder. But the good thing is that elite runners of TTD do not only inspire their teammates, they also encourage other runners to strive harder as well," Audan said.

But aside from dominating competitions and making fun run events livelier, Audan and TTD has also done their part to the community as they conducted tree-planting, bloodletting and relief activities for the benefit of some barangays in the city.

Audan continues to rally the members during their regular Wednesday runs.

"Our Wednesday runs serve as our camaraderie run and it is also a way for us to have updates from our members as we get time to chat while we run," Audan said.

When asked about his message to aspiring members of TTD, Audan said: "You have to have a personal goal, you must be passionate and committed to running and they should run for 10 kilometers for three consecutive Wednesdays to become a full-pledged member."

He also advised aspiring doctors and other professionals to love what they do, stay determined and put their trust in God.

Before taking his career to the next level and leading a group of dedicated runners, Audan, youngest in the brood of three, has shown his brilliance in academics back when he was in school.

He spent his first four grades in Ateneo de Davao University during which he won third place in the Philippines National Science Fair. He transferred to the University of the Immaculate Conception when he was in grade five and went on to graduate with honors and received a gold medal in Science.

Audan also graduated as second honorable mention at the University of Mindanao when he was in high school. He also continued to show his forte in Science by bagging the gold medal in the Region 11 Science Fair and was hailed as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Scientist in the region.

He took up a bachelor's degree in Biology in 1980. From there, Audan's name was constantly on the dean's list and he was also able to hone his leadership skills by becoming class president for four years.

Audan's excellence in science brought him into the field of medicine at the Davao Medical School Foundation. He proceeded with his post graduate internship at the Davao Medical Center now the SPMC.

His interest in emergency medicine paved the way for him to attend a fellowship training in the said specialization at the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital (UP-GPH) in Manila. He also was bent on using his emergency medicine skills to a massive scale which encouraged him to take a diploma course in Disaster Management in Large Population at the University of Hong Kong (UHK).

After attaining ample experience at UP-GPH and UHK, Audan returned to SPMC and from there, he served as the Chief of the Emergency Room from 1999 to 2009.

His experience in the field expanded as he also became the chair of the Health Emergency Management Services and the Overall Post Graduate Medical Interns Coordinator from 1999 to 2011. He became president of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) Davao Chapter in 2008 and was elected as regional director for Mindanao of PAFP from 2009 to 2012. Recently, he received the service award during the Annual Convention of the PAFP.

That’s just up to the present and there is no stopping the doctor from achieving more this year and in the years to come.