Day 4: 8th Biennial Convention in Review

By: Dr. Lorielyn Garcia-Mandigma

The attention and commitment of the attendees remained strong as they held on the 4th day of the convention. The program commenced with another interesting topic that talks about the new management strategies for Pediatric Heart Failure. It was presented by three brilliant speakers: DR. MARIA DOLORES B. VICTOR, DR. MARIA CONCEPCION C.  SISON, and DR. RUDY A. AMATONG – all Pediatric Cardiologists. The lectures that they presented have encompassed the entirety of pediatric heart failure, by elucidating the diversity of its causes among the pediatric population compared to the adult population, down to the approach to diagnosis, management and new pharmacologic treatments that can be given. Their comprehensive lectures were head on and would surely enable the generalist to specialist, diagnose and manage children presenting with heart failure, confidently.

The next hour was a dedicated to two presentations from a CME educational grant which was presented by two equally brilliant doctors in their field of expertise: DR. JUAN G. REGANION (Pediatric Cardiologist/Interventionalist) and DR. GISEL T. CATALAN (Pediatric Thoracic Cardiovascular surgeon). Both speakers imparted a vast amount of learning and have presented valid points for consideration in choosing the appropriate procedure to alleviate cyanosis in a child with cyanotic heart disease.

The last two hour of the day was dedicated to a panel discussion about pre-operative clearance for cardiac patients with comorbidities. The dynamic discussion between the four reputable speakers: DR. ANNE MARIE D. ESPALDON (Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist), DR. CARLO MARTIN H. GARCIA (Pediatric Thoraco-Cardiovascular Surgeon), DR. MA. BERNADETTE A. AZCUETA (Pediatric Cardiologist ), and DR. FLORIAN R. NUEVO (Cardiovascular Anesthesiologist), paved the way for better understanding the diversity and uniqueness of each child with cardiac disease who would undergo cardiac surgery. The lively panel discussion was moderated by DR. LEAH A. PLUCENA (Pediatric Cardiologist) who has managed to keep the topic enticing to the audience while it was being comprehensively discussed by the panelists. 

The fourth day of the convention was wrapped up with great learnings and accomplishments.