The ASE Foundation’s global health outreach events program is designed to bring humanitarian adult and pediatric cardiac care to developing countries, teaching local clinicians and providing direct services to those in need. These efforts not only impact the lives and well-being of countless patients in underserved populations, but they also serve to spotlight the versatility and adaptability of cardiovascular ultrasound while advancing practice standards to uniform treatment and improve patient care worldwide.
The ASE Foundation’s 2016 global health outreach events are supported by donor contributions to the Annual Appeal and a grant from the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Every Heartbeat Matters program.
Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines
July 2016
Partners in Care │ What We Did │ Educational Resources
About the USNS Mercy and the Pacific Partnership
Learn more about Team Legazpi in Echo Magazine (Vol 5 Issue 1)
Partners in Care
A collaboration between the ASE Foundation, the Philippine Society of Echocardiography (PSE), the Philippine Heart Association Bicol Chapter (PHA), and the U.S. Navy’s 2016 Pacific Partnership brought together a diverse team of clinicians for an education and training seminar in early July 2016. Our team met at the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital (BRTTH) in Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines for two days of didactic lectures, hands-on training of echo techniques, and assessment of patients to identify congenital and rheumatic heart disease. Our aim was to work together and learn from each other’s experience while providing education and training in an underserved area of the world.
Team Leaders:
ASE Foundation: David Adams, ACS, RCS, RDCS, FASE – Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina
Philippine Heart Association Bicol Chapter: Narciso Thad S. Ciocson, MD – Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital, Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines
U.S. Navy: CDR David Krause, MD – Naval Medical Center, San Diego, California
Philippine Society of Echocardiography: Edwin S. Tucay, MD – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Team Members:
Abigail Jean M. Alaan – PSE Secretariat, Quezon City, Philippines
Charity Belmes, RN, RCS – The Medical City, Cainta, Rizal, Philippines
Jonnie R. Bote-Nuñez, MD – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Melissa R. Cundangan, MD – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Tina Dejkunchorn, RDCS – AMN Healthcare, Honolulu, Hawaii
Aurora Muriel S. Gamponia, MD – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Jose Donato A. Magno, MD – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Gregg Pressman, MD, FASE – Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lucy Safi, DO – Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Aileen C. Señga, RMT – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Gerald Shishido, ACS, RDCS, RCS – Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany
Maj. Kelly Stanton, MD – Royal Australian Army Medical Corps, Heart Research Institute, Newtown, NSW, Australia
Myla Gloria S. Supe, MD – Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines
Andrea M. Van Hoever – ASE Staff, Morrisville, North Carolina
Special acknowledgement for helping facilitate the U.S. Navy’s involvement:
CDR Miguel S. Gutierrez, MD
LCDR Dean Kang, PharmD, MHA
CAPT Tony Han, MD
LCDR Margrette M. Moore, MD
CAPT Keshav Nayak, MD
CAPT Peter F. Roberts, MD
CDR Steven C. Romero, MD, FASE
CDR Dylan E. Wessman, MD
Thank you also to our industry partners BioSolutions (GE Healthcare), RG Meditron Inc. (Hitachi-Aloka), HealthSolutions Inc. (SIEMENS), and Respicare Ent. (Mindray) for providing the ultrasound equipment and technical support required to make this event a success. Additional local support was organized by the BRTTH and PSE.
What We Did
Hands-on Training
Lectures
Patient Care
Most of the patients our team scanned had rheumatic heart disease (RHD), and some had congenital heart disease as well. All of the patients left the BRTTH with a paper copy of their echo report and are being followed by a cardiologist to coordinate any needed treatment. A teenager with a ruptured aortic sinus of Valsalva aneurysm was sent to Manila for surgery. Multiple patients with severe valvular problems from RHD are being evaluated for surgery. Two patients with patent ductus arteriosus are having catheter-based closure procedures.
Educational Resources
Lectures presented by our team during the imaging conference.
Welcome / Optimizing Echo and Hidden Things in the Heart – David Adams
Constriction / Restriction – Lucy Safi
Echo Artifacts: The Cause and Solution – David Adams
Echocardiographic Evaluation of Prosthetic Valves – Myla Gloria Supe
Echocardiographic Evaluation of Valvular Stenosis – Melissa Cundangan
Echocardiography in Endocarditis – Gregg Pressman
Implementing New Technology – David Adams
Regurgitant Lesions – Gregg Pressman
Right Ventricular Size and Function – Edwin Tucay
Sizing Up the Situation: Cardiac Chamber Quantification Using Echocardiography – Jose Donato Magno
Cases: Basic POC Echo Cases – David Adams
Cases: More Cases with Questions – David Adams
About the USNS Mercy and the Pacific Partnership
The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) is one of the largest floating hospitals in the world. A converted San Clemente-class supertanker, the Mercy holds 12 fully-equipped operating rooms, a 1,000-bed hospital facility, full blood and pathology suites, a radiology department, dental suite, ophthalmology capability, and four intensive care units including an isolation unit.
The Pacific Partnership is an annual humanitarian aid and disaster response-preparation program in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. This year a multinational team of over 900 military and civilian specialists were aboard the Mercy as she visited Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia on a four-month deployment.
