Calamba Medical Center reinforces fight against tuberculosis with Dayang Masalanta Awards

The award body has recognised five physicians who have referred the most patients in its TB DOTS clinic.

Before the recent COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis (TB) was considered the leading infectious cause of morbidity worldwide. The World Health Organisation recorded 10 million TB cases worldwide in 2018 alone, with the Philippines recording 0.59 million cases.

Within the country, the province of Laguna accounted for 25% of all recorded cases. This has led private hospital Calamba Medical Center (CMC) to open its TB Directly-Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) clinic in October 2018 and become certified with PhilHealth in June 2019. Despite this access, the CMC TB DOTS has only enrolled a few patients in the programme.

The facility has launched the Dayang Masalanta Awards in April 2022 as a way to combat this issue. Dayang Masalanta Awards aims to inform CMC doctors that TB patients are eligible for free treatment within the TB DOTS clinic. The recognition is given to physicians who can demonstrate commitment and support to the TB DOTS programme by way of referring patients to be treated in the clinic.

WIth the inception of Dayang Masalanta, the TB DOTS clinic has had a total of 92 patients by end-2022, which represents a more than 500% increase from the previous years’ census. CMC has recognised five physicians as recipients of the award as of today, with the first one being pulmonologist Dr Arabella Pua Quing for providing the most patient referrals in the clinic.

The impact of CMC’s Dayang Masalanta Awards in making TB treatment more accessible to the public has been acknowledged by the Healthcare Asia Awards 2024, with the hospital bagging the Disease Prevention Initiative of the Year - Philippines.

The coveted awards programme recognises exceptional healthcare providers that have redefined the standards of healthcare through their unwavering dedication to innovation, setting of new industry benchmarks, and substantial contributions to their communities.

The Healthcare Asia Awards is presented by Healthcare Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your organisation's remarkable initiatives and contributions to the healthcare industry, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].