We’ve Got Your Back! TVUP Webinar #187
About two weeks ago, my INTARMED classmate Dr. Dave Dizon messaged me and asked if I could be a reactor for a webinar at which he would be the main speaker. His talk would be the main entree while my shorter bit would be the accompanying side dish [note: this speaker-with-reactor format is popular in the Philippines]. Dave is an orthopedic spine surgeon, so he thought a complementary non-surgical perspective of back pain from a rehabilitation medicine physician like me would go well nicely with his talk on slipped (herniated) discs. This was going to be aired on TV UP, the internet television network of the University of the Philippines (UP). As an internet television network, TV UP can be viewed on their own website, Facebook, Youtube and on cable television (Cignal channel 101).
A few days before the webinar, we had an online planning meeting with the production team – a mix of physicians from UP Manila (the Health Sciences campus, where the Philippine General Hospital is located) and showbiz folks from UP Diliman (the flagship campus in Quezon City), as well as the UP Open University (also headquartered in UP Diliman).
This Health Updates webinar series evolved from a previous series started during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 called Stop COVID Deaths, obviously focusing on topics related to the ongoing pandemic. As the pandemic waned, “COVID” became “C.O.V.I.D.” (Current COVID-19 problems, Other outbreaks, Viruses, Infections, Disasters) before rebranding and reformatting into the current Health Updates. The webinar is hosted by Dr. Raymond Francis R. Sarmiento from the National Telehealth Center (part of the National Institutes of Health) and co-hosted by a rotating set of physicians such as public health expert Dr. Susan Pineda Mercado, former UP Manila chancellor and pediatrician/geneticist/national scientist Dr. Carmencita Padilla, Philippine General Hospital administrative team’s obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Stella Marie L. Jose and surgeon Dr. Dione Sacdalan. Dr. Sacdalan served as our co-host for this webinar.
The webinar is archived on TVUP’s Youtube channel, and you can watch it here.
Breast cancer footnote: I had a haircut 2 days ago, which pretty much got rid of the remaining curly ends of my hair strands. It’s so nice to have straight-ish hair that can be tamed more easily. It is about 18 months since my hair started growing back after chemotherapy.
