Journal Appraisal

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this activity as it really put into practice the research and public health
lessons we’ve been learning since our first year. It was this activity, tying into our project development
activity that made me realize how important this aspect of project research is to make a clear and effective
proposal. It was through this activity that I appreciated how to truly identify if a study would actually
benefit me, my project, and in turn help the people I want to help. Through a set of simple questions, we
were able to see if a study is of quality, applicable, and relevant to me and my projects and further honing
of this skill would ensure that the projects and ideas that we come up with in the future are soundly and
effectively researched and helpful to our patients and the community as a whole.

Teleconsultation

I had a lot of difficult with the teleconsultation activity. Not only was it difficult to do a complete
history and physical exam on an adolescent, but add to the fact that doing it online limits what we can do
and how we can show our empathy with our patients in order to establish rapport, really hinders us in
doing a good and effective history and PE. The mentorship/advising the I received from this activity really
emphasized how much work and practice us doctors need to have to adapt to this new way of
consultations.

Project Development

My LEC group and I had high hopes and anxious thoughts when preparing our project for the Ilugin
community. Thoughts such as ‘is this a good idea’, ‘how many children would attend?’, ‘will they like our
concept and stories?’, ‘are we missing anything?’ ran through our minds and our group chat when we
prepared all the materials we needed. What motivated us to do well was the idea that this could help the
community, most specially the children achieve better health education and better health practices, thus
limiting the risks of them getting sick.

We decided to focus on STH infections, a topic so simple and commonplace in the Philippines but
still with a national program dedicated to fighting it and yet with still high or increasing numbers to say
that this is still a national public health problem. From our interviews with key stake holders and some
extensive research on the topic, our plan to engage and educate the most vulnerable to STH infections –
the children, came to fruition. Despite our concerns and some statistical data we found researching in the
internet, we decided to stick to an interactive e-book type of project. This proved to be an engaging and
fulfilling activity as we implemented this in one of our sessions with the kids. I honestly hope that our
project has potential enough to be included in a nation-wide scale as our group can actually see a lot of
children, and even parents and teachers, benefiting from this simple video in the future.