Duke University | Photo by Charles Givens on Unsplash
Part VIII of a “Cancer/Medical Moonshot” Series
Duke University appears to be an ideal partner for the Philippine Medical Center (MedCenter), which will be a state-of-the-art replica of the first one built in Manila in 1901. It was then a project of U.S. President William McKinley and William Howard Taft, the first civil governor-general of the new American colony.
This journalist has been advocating for a modern MedCenter in a new location, possibly in Sorsogon Province, for nearly three decades. It is the southern tip of the main island of Luzon. Sorsogon is the gateway to the islands of Samar and Leyte — across the San Bernardino Strait, where the Philippine Sea (formerly known as the “China Sea”) meets the Pacific Ocean. Sorsogon is almost in the middle of the Philippine archipelago, which comprises more than 7,700 islands and islets. The proposed new MedCenter can be financed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank and other international lending institutions, with a maximum repayment period of 30 years.
Why this columnist thinks that Duke University — and its Cancer Institute, schools of medicine, nursing, and other colleges of medical science — should become the primary partner for the MedCenter? Because he has observed firsthand how it operates, especially its Cancer Center. He decided to write a series that will eventually be published as books about the “Cancer/Medical Moonshot”. It will, of course, feature the author’s in-person research at Duke Cancer Center, where he and his wife are presently providing moral and other support for a descendant being treated there.
As mentioned earlier, a “MedCenter” has three components: 1) schools of medicine, nursing, and other colleges of science; 2) a general hospital; and 3) a research-and-development (R&D) center for developing and manufacturing affordable yet better medicines and vaccines. The proposed establishment in Sorsogon will include innovations, such as new colleges offering “alternative medical courses”.
Here is the latest news about Duke Health, which recently filed plans for a $150-million cancer center that will house a proton-beam therapy facility. The plan includes demolishing an existing building in Durham and constructing a new facility to deliver a different therapy for cancer and other tumors.
“A 21st-century version of the 1901 Philippine MedCenter should aim to become the most modern facility in the ASEAN region, if not in the Far East. Ergo, it should have comparable infrastructure, faculty, and medical staff that are as good and state-of-the-art as those at Duke University.”
Proton therapy differs from conventional X-ray (photon) therapy by depositing most of its energy directly into the tumor—a phenomenon known as the Bragg peak—and stopping there, thus preventing an “exit dose” to healthy tissue beyond the tumor. The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland introduced “pencil beam scanning” (also known as spot scanning) in 1996, enabling 3D, highly conformal treatment of irregular tumors.
A 21st-century version of the 1901 Philippine MedCenter should aim to become the most modern facility in the ASEAN region, if not in the Far East. Ergo, it should have comparable infrastructure, faculty, and medical staff that are as good and state-of-the-art as those at Duke University. It can serve as a pilot project and training facility—aside from Duke University—for medical centers that may be constructed at 49 other strategic locations worldwide.
The Filipino-American medical community boasts more than 22,000 physicians, 600,000 nurses, and tens of thousands more dentists, pharmacists, radiologists, biochemists, dietitians, technicians, other medical professionals, and licensed caregivers. They can back up and invest in the project. American households of Filipino descent collectively earn more than $92 billion annually. It is proposed that all facilities, including support infrastructure—from airports, seaports, commuter rail, agricultural enterprises, Memorial Tree Parks, and resorts—shall be owned by cooperatives. Yes, co-ops that shall be formed by Filipinos, Overseas Filipinos (even the now citizens of other countries), their in-laws, and other foreign shareholders. The co-ops and their credit unions will be part of public-private partnerships (PPPs) formed to support the MedCenter project.
This column describes how the author visited the University of Pittsburgh’s “Cathedral of Learning” in November 1997 as a potential component of a new MedCenter in the Philippines. In May 2023, this columnist also started discussing ways to save the 155-year-old Holy Names University (HNU) of Oakland (California) that was about to shut its doors. He floated the idea of turning it into the academic component of a MedCenter for California. But Golden State’s political leaders ignored the offered plan to save the HNU. See you this Sunday morning.
