The William H. Quasha Museum.

The spacious lounge high atop the 7th floor of the St. Luke’s College of Medicine Building overlooks the sprawling suburbs of Quezon City. Inside, dozens of fresh-faced medical students quietly pore through medical books and manuals, while others consult flickering laptop screens.

Dr. Brigido L. Carandang, Jr., president and dean of St. Luke’s College of Medicine (SLCM) — William H. Quasha Memorial, surveys the scene, and declares: “One of the Philippine government’s objectives is to produce doctors who will serve in the rural areas by teaching community-based medicine. However, the government also wants doctors who will staff hospitals that will make the Philippines a major destination for medical tourism. The latter is what SLCM is responding to. That’s why, in our curriculum, we have integrated clinical subjects as early as the first year,” Dr. Carandang says.

St. Luke’s Medical Center is providing the school with P50 million a year for operating expenses, another P50 million for scholarships, and P100 million in research grants.

SLCM’s efforts to attract the best students began with a revamp of its faculty in 2005. “We trimmed down our faculty from over 400 to less than 146, retaining only those who shared the vision of what we could become and who were willing to work for it,” the dean adds.

Today, the school has a faculty-student ratio of 146:190. They can admit 300 students and still have a 1:2 ratio.

SLCM’s curriculum combines basic and the clinical sciences integrated throughout the years of medical school.

In the first year, for instance, the College introduces Foundations of Medicine, a subject participated in by the faculties of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology with the cooperation of select clinical faculty to demonstrate to the students the interaction of these basic disciplines in actual clinical situations.

Likewise, Anatomy is taught with the participation of the Radiology faculty so that the most modern imaging techniques are introduced to the first year students.

TIGHTER ADMISSION, GENEROUS SCHOLARSHIPS

When enrollments were declining and many medical schools were dispensing with National Medical Admission Test (NMAT) cut-off levels in order to admit more students, St. Luke’s College of Medicine went against the tide and raised its NMAT requirement from 65 to 90 percent.

“We’ve limited ourselves to the top 10 percent of the market, the same group of students that would go to a top and reputable medical school,” Dr. Carandang says. “We want the privilege of educating the best minds.”

To entice the best and the brightest students from the top schools in the Philippines, SLCM offers generous scholarships. Students who graduate with Latin honors from Philippine colleges and score 90 percent or higher in the NMAT can obtain full scholarships worth P90,000, covering tuition, laboratory and miscellaneous fees and books.

SLCM also offers partial scholarships to bachelor degree holders with a general weighted average of 2.0 and an NMAT score of 90 percent. A partial scholarship covers 75 percent of tuition, laboratory and miscellaneous fees and books.

Carandang says SLCM also lays the foundation for developing the scientists who will do the research work for the college and the medical center. Dr. Carandang himself enlisted the scientists at the St. Luke’s Research and Biotechnology Division (RBD) and made them faculty members to strengthen basic research skills among students.

“Research contributes to the pool of knowledge. The top medical schools in the world are known for the research they do. We therefore should take advantage of the fact that the RBD in the St. Luke’s Medical Center is one of the best equipped research centers in the country today.”

Dr. Carandang says SLCM is gearing up for future challenges ahead. “I think we’ve set the right foundation, and have evolved,” he observes. “We’ve done the hard part: build a school based on a framework that not all knowledge can be found in the classroom. The students must find their own knowledge.”