Comments on: The 10 Best Medical Schools in the Philippines

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 10:36:59 +0000

In reply to Howell John F. Casison, MD, OHP, RMT. That's a lovely bit of insight, Howell. It's true, numbers fall short when it comes to capturing things like that. Thank you for sharing this with us :)

By: Howell John F. Casison, MD, OHP, RMT

Howell John F. Casison, MD, OHP, RMT — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 07:43:51 +0000

The school plays a critical role but really it is the doctors’ ultimate performance both in the licensure exams and in the real world that will determine which school is the best; for we carry our school’s name and identity with each and every patient we take care of. They may not always ask “what school did you graduate from , doc?”, but each time they say ” thank you doc, for taking good care of me” you feel a sense of pride for your school. That may not be easy to quantify for survey purposes but then again no one had been promised a rose garden either.

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 07:55:44 +0000

In reply to JR.

Great ideas! I’m especially glad that someone mentioned a benchmark related to the process itself (of educating/creating new doctors). Thanks for the comment, JR 🙂

Since you seem to avow that large-population and small-population schools both have their good sides, though, which one would you personally prefer were you a med student, out of curiosity? Why?

By: JR

JR — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 06:37:31 +0000

Maybe we can look at attrition rates.
Which med schools take care of their students, ie. Provide better teacher to student ratio, or better chances that once you get in, you graduate…
Then compare it to tangible results like what you’ve done above.

Big schools have big population of students, that’s an advantage and a disadvantage in itself.

And i think schools maintaining smaller population is their way of making that school the best med school as compared to others.

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 04:47:06 +0000

In reply to Dr Bong.

Very true — it’s one of the weaknesses of this rating approach 🙂 For some reason, it puts to my mind something Meryl Streep once said. People make so much of her being the most nominated actress in history, she quipped, that they tend to forget she’s also the one who has lost the most awards (as with UST, you enter more, you risk more). Yet no one ever interprets those losses as diminutions of her acting’s quality.

By: Dr Bong

Dr Bong — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 04:24:23 +0000

Don’t you think its trickier or rather more precarious to field more examinees? Although as you mentioned there is greater possibility for them to get a lot of top ten slots (UST), there is also a greater possibility for them NOT to get a higher passing percentage (9/10 as opposed to 250/300 but based on number passers 250 is significantly higher than 9, and to maintain a “relatively high passed/total examinees percentage speaks of the quality of graduates each institution has)

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 18:19:13 +0000

In reply to ACPascual. Hi, AC :) To be clear, we're not saying these are the "absolute best" medical schools in the country. That chart is merely a representation of another possible answer to the question of which institutions those would be. If you follow the link introducing that list in the post, you also see that it's based on first-timer passing rates. This is the standard the PRC itself uses when evaluating school performance in the examinations. Hence the seeming disparity: one of the test-takers from St. Luke's was repeater. I put a note about that list being limited to first-timer passing rates though, to prevent future misunderstanding. Thanks for pointing it out as well as that intriguing bit of info on Fatima.

By: ACPascual

ACPascual — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 17:45:36 +0000

There’s quite bias and inaccuracy in ranking St. Luke’s at the top with 99% passing rate. Whereas it was mentioned earlier that St. Luke’s sent 2 examinees to the March 2017 board and 1 failed, how come then that the passing rate is 100%? Likewise, take note that the bulk of first time examinees take the September board and most repeaters take the March board. However, Fatima screens their graduates to take only the March board, it makes sense.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 10:56:56 +0000

In reply to Manuel Quiambao.

True, any alternative measurement of med. school excellence will have to be evaluated repeatedly and its benchmarks questioned… just like some already question the present one, actually 🙂 I’m glad you mentioned the potential privacy issue, though. It’s certainly something to consider, so thanks for reminding us of it, Manuel 🙂

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 10:49:12 +0000

In reply to KT.

Thanks for the precise suggestions, KT 🙂 Re:#1 in your list and a PRC survey, it would be interesting to see if particular schools have higher/lower practising rates among their graduates.

The surveys would have to be done over an extended period and the most we could ever get would just be rough correlations, of course. Still, it’s definitely information worth seeing.