How lucky we are to be alive right now!

I’m young, scrappy and hungryAnd I’m not throwing away my shot! Dreams do come true. September 17 to November 26, 2023. Special thanks to the Performing Arts Medicine Association, “understudy” Frances, and the person affiliated with the production who found me. Grateful for the opportunity to have supported the performers from Hamilton Manila tour 2023! […]

Bye, bye piano. End of an era.

Bye bye, piano. End of an era. I was 5 years old when mom and dad bought it in 1980: an investment towards my musical education as we realized piano playing wasn’t going to just be a phase I was going through. Thank you to my first piano teacher Charisse Gonzalez for helping us choose […]

#ASPAH2023 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

November 25, 2023 Made it to Brisbane for the the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare annual conference. First in-person meeting since 2019, and learning from the pandemic: it’s a hybrid conference that is also available online! As with most formal Australian gatherings, there was a Welcome to Country ceremony from a representative of the […]

Academic Adventures in Cebu

Earlier this year, I received an invitation to speak at the University of the Philippines Medical Alumni Society (UPMAS) 24th Grand Scientific Symposium (GSS) about integrating the Medical Humanities in the medical school curriculum. I was going to be part of a panel whose topic was new innovations in medical education: the other speakers were […]

61. Doreen Follows Up on the Hair Progress

We haven’t seen [breast cancer mascot] Doreen in a while, so here she is demonstrating my hair progress between October 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023. The photo from today (2023) is a screenshot from Zoom before our (hybrid) rounds with the residents this morning… much easier than trying to position Doreen over my head […]

On Wearing a White Coat

The interns nowadays at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) wear short white coats with short sleeves. When we were interns, the only thing distinguishing us from the rest of the medical students was a red nameplate; the other students had white nameplates pinned to the all-white uniform that was common to first- to fifth-year medical […]

That was fun… we’d like an encore, please!

September 30, 2023 Maraming salamat, UP Symphony Orchestra! We enjoyed the collaboration between our university musicians and our Performing Arts Medicine team from the PGH Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in this series of three musicians’ health talks. Dr. Ria Panis and Ms. Florence Culaba (psychologist) talked about ergonomics and mindfulness, respectively, before their Saturday rehearsal […]

9th Annual Balik-Scientist Convention

September 27, 2023 Today’s (out of of town) event: 9th Balik Scientist Program (BSP) annual convention. Arrived at the convention center Tuesday the 26th, did a dry run of the presentation, had dinner with local relatives in the Angeles City area. To refresh your memory: I received a Balik Scientist Program award grant for a […]