SPSA CME Re-Accredited

The Society of Philippine Surgeons in America now belongs to a select few, out of several hundreds of providers of continuing medical education in the country, having received the highest rating on its 2011 re-accreditation application. Dr. Benjamin Zamora, the Society’s CME chairman proudly announced that SPSA was given a 6-year full accreditation  to expire on November 30, 2017 by the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education. Dr. Zamora stated that  “In our 38 years of accreditation with ACCME, we have always achieved the standard 4-year accreditation which means compliance to all required elements”

Dr. Zamora and his wife Mary Zamora, RN, the Society’s Coordinator who worked hard on the re-application process for several months, received the notification letter and the certificate from Murray Kopelow, MD, MS, the ACCME Chief Executive Officer.

The Society of Philippine Surgeons in America conducts a yearly annual surgical symposium and continuing medical education in July and during its spring Board meeting.

Click here to view [ Accreditation Council Continuing Medical Education ]

Church Donates to SPSA Surgical Mission

The First Presbyterian Church of Borger recently donated $5303.60 to Philippine Surgeon Charities for the SPSA's surgical mission to the Philippines. Pictured above is Dr. Ed Quiros receiving the donation from Mr. Jerry Pool and Ms. Julia Kasch, both representing the Church.

Former SPSA President Out With New Book

Philip Chua, MD FACS FPCS long-awaited book  came out of publication recently. “Let’s Stop Killing Our Children” is a collection of the author’s articles and commentaries on our environment and social issues which were published in numerous websites and newspapers here in the United States and abroad.  The book, according to the author is meant to encourage  “the fundamental value of starting a healthy lifestyle and prevention of diseases from crib, or even before the conception of the child”.  The articles  are “aimed to educate, challenge, and inspire the public on health issues and offer preemptive strategies in dealing with diseases in general”.

Dr. Chua, a cardiac surgeon, is a former president of the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America, editor emeritus of the Philippine Surgeon and presently the Chairman of the Filipino United Network USA. He writes a weekly column  on health related issues for four newspapers in the United States. The foreword to the book was written by Dr. Denton Cooley with whom the author trained under during his cardiac fellowship at Texas Heart Institute.

Dr. Chua who is married to his wife Farida, a pediatrician, and has five children who are all physicians, has promised to donate royalties from  books purchased by and through the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America in the Philippines towards the charitable  activities of the Society. The book can be purchased through  Xlibris, the publisher of the book or through the internet,  Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Cacdac Indiana PMA Physician of the Year

The Philippine Medical Association of Indiana awarded the Indiana PMA Physician of the Year to Manuel Cacdac, a neurosurgeon during the PMA Inaugural Ball September 17, 2011. Dr. Cacdac, a past president of SPSA, its current Convention Chairman and co-chair of SPSA’s surgical missions, has been a recipient of numerous local and national awards for his humanitarian activities. He is the founder and chairman of the Hydrocephalus Foundation of the Philippines which undertakes surgical treatment hydrocephalic indigent babies and children through ventriculo-peritoneal shunt program.

CORDERO ASSUMES SPSA PRESIDENCY

Dr. Rey Cordero, surgeon from Atascadero, California will be inducted as the 36th President of the Society of Philippine Surgeons in America during the Society’s 37th Annual Surgical Symposium in Burlingame California, July 13-16, 2011. Previous to being elected last year, Dr. Cordero was the Society’s Executive Secretary.  He is also SPSA’s Liaison Committee to the Philippine College of Surgeons.

Dr. Cordero graduated in 1972 from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. Trained in general and thoracic surgery at Makati Medical Center in the Philippines in 1972-76, he did a Fellowship in Cardiovascular Surgery in 1976-78 at the Philippine Heart Center before he immigrated to the US where he did his surgical training at Kansas University Medical Center in 1980-84. After a brief private practice stint in Johnson City, Kansas, he moved to California where he becomes the Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Surgery at the Atascadero Forensic Psychiatric Hospital where he retired in 2003. He presently is the Medical Director of Medworks Medical Center.

Rey, as his friends call him, is a Past Grand Knight, 4th Degree, Knights of Columbus, President of the Philippine Medical Society of Northern California in 2000-2001 and 2010-2011. Active in local and state medical societies, he is a recipient of awards from local medical society foundation as well as from the California State Assembly.  He and his wife are recipients this April 30 of Phi Delta Kappa Lay Citizens of the Year Award.

He intends to reach out to younger surgeons of Filipino ancestry, encourage participation in Society’s activities and continue dialogue with the Philippine College of Surgeons on activities that will benefit both organizations.

Dr. Cordero has three children, a son and two daughters, and four grandsons. He enjoys hiking and biking in the mountains that surround San Luis Obispo. He says he would enjoy golf of he had more time to play and learn form as excellent golfer.

SPSA FELLOW UST QUADRICENTENNIAL AWARDEE

Zorayda Lee-LIacer, MD from Maryland member of the SPSA Faculty and SPSA Board of Governors was recently honored with the Thomasian Leadership Award during the University of Santo Tomas Quadricentennial Celebration last December 2010 in recognition of her humanitarian services to her patients, her colleagues and to organized medicine.

An anesthesiologist and critical care specialist, she is considered a trailblazer for championing antidiscrimination against women and foreign medical graduates as chairman of the Anti-Discrimination Committee of the Maryland State Medical Society. She lobbied many times during the legislative sessions of the Maryland Legislature in support of physician issues.  For her advocacy of patient and physician issues, she was recognized and presented with citation awards by the Governor, Senate President and the Speaker of the House of the State of Maryland.

She was the first female president of the Georges County Medical Society and for eight years, a member of the Maryland Board of Physician Quality Assurance and was for twenty-five years, a member of the state’s Medical Society’s House of Delegates.  Formerly, she was also an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesia at Georgetown University Medical Center. Since 1988, Dr. Lee-LIacer has been joining the surgical mission to Sorsogon. 

She has also been with the SPSA surgical mission for the last five years. Dr. Zorayda is married to Dr. Reynaldo Lee-LIacer, a surgeon from Maryland and a former president of the Society of Philippine Surgeons n America.  Currently, she is Medical Director of a 22-bed critical care unit at Laurel Regional Hospital in Laurel, Maryland.

Rep. Mel Sarmiento, in the middle, at Tacloban Airport with Dr. Cacdac. Alice Barcelona, RN and Rep. Torres staff last January.

CALBAYOG SAMAR NEXT SPSA SURGICAL MISSION VENUE

SPSA’s next surgical mission will be in Calbayog, Samar. This is scheduled for November 28 – December 4 2011.  This would be the Society’s third surgical mission to Calbayog.  Two previous missions to the city were held in January and December 2006 under the auspices then of the late Congressman Reynaldo Uy and Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento and Congressman Catalino Figueroa who had patients from his Catbalogan district come to Calbayog for needed surgery.  

Previously, the Society also held a mission in Catbalogan, sponsored by Congressman Figueroa. This next mission is upon the invitation of Congressman Sarmiento who now represents the first district of Samar in the 15th Congress.  The congressman has sent a letter to SPSA President Dr. Gualberto requesting the Society to return to the city. Dr. Manny Cacdac, co-chair of SPSA’s surgical mission committee is coordinating the activity with the congressman’s office.

During the 2006 missions to Calbayog,  close to a thousand surgical procedures were performed by the missionaries, “SPSA’s efforts changing the lives of  many Samarenos”, as Congressman Sarmiento acknowledged in his letter.