Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Dr. Rene Juaneza: An advocate of commitment to patient care and service above gain
By Ramel dela Cruz
AS a doctor he is committed to help and care for his parents especially those who are critically ill and dying.
"To offer my services of making patient walk away from the brink of death is one of the greatest fulfillments of being a doctor, more so, when you have those who have less in life. Just to cure them is something I always enjoy," Dr. Juaneza said.
"It's about commitment of caring and giving service to those who are in need, regardless of their creed, religion, position, or whatever. The thing is you gave the best care and with out regards for numeration," he adds. This is also the reason why he subspecialized in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine so he could care for those near dying patients.
He wanted to become a soldier like his father but in the end, going to medical school was the best option out of mediocrity and probably poverty. It was a way of uplifting the standard of living of his family and making a name for himself.
Dr. Juaneza was recently elected as the president of the prestigious Philippine College of Physician for 2006 to 2007, the umbrella organization of 6,600 plus internists (Internal Medicine Specialist) in the Philippines consisting if 12 chapters, 14 subspecialty societies and 78 accredited training hospitals. He is the first Ilonggo and the second only in the 54 years history of the said Internal Medicine Society to be elected as a non-Manila based member.
He is considered to be one of the top internist in the country. He takes everything in stride, always very humble.
According to him, inspite of all these accolade and success, "my feet are firmly planted on the ground. Of course- I try to enjoy life the way I see it, life comes with perks for those who work from dawn to dusk. I don't look too far in the future though; I just live each day as well as I can and things will just fall to its proper place."
"What are my priorities? My family, God and country. That's why as president of PCP, one of the advocacy is a culture change among doctors and patients. Maybe it's about time to focus from sick care to preventive health care. Teach our children at a young age about preventive medicine, especially smoking, cancer, TB, hypertension and other heart diseases, which cause of high morbidity and mortality rate in the country," he said.
Lately it has come to his notice the International MedicalZoning Bill, which among others, will allow foreigners to practice medicine in the country competing with our own doctors. "It's totally absurd, unacceptable and unnationalistic. We already have an exodus of medical doctors to U.S., England, Middle East, Europe; why bring foreigners to practice in the cloak of alleviating medical and economic woes in the country? We have enough reservoirs of medical talents, at par with the best in the world who can take care of the needs of our country men," he said.
"We have already made headway with our partner, the Philippine Science High School to help us in the sick care advocacies. The world renown Professor Josette Biyo, has signified that they wanted to help and add templates modules and teaching materials in the curriculum of high school students of the said school. If this becomes successful, maybe we can present it to our educators and especially the Department of Education and make it part of the curriculum in the public school system," he said.
Dr. Juaneza is married to Nenet, a nurse entrepreneur and has her own small business. Their children are Nilo Kristoffer, 22 years old, who is in the United States as a Board Certified Nurse; John Paolo, 20 years old, just finished nursing; and Maria Carmelle, a second year nurse in St. Paul's University of Iloilo.
We will feature some more of the life and works of Dr. Juaneza, the pride of the Ilonggos as president of PCP and his recently awarded the most outstanding alumnus of the Manila Central University for his being the first MCU graduate to be PCP president./RDLC
(August 1, 2006 issue)
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