History

In the early 1980’s, four hospitals, The Medical City, Polymedic General Hospital, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, organized weekly interhospital conferences.  These conferences were venues for lectures, didactics and presentation of interesting cases.  St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital later joined the group.

By 1991, the chairpersons of the five founding hospitals; Dr. Juan Y. Fuentes of The Medical City, Dr. Vicente X. Genato of the Polymedic Hospital, Dr. Florante P. Gonzaga of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Dr. Rodolfo P. de Guzman of St. Martin De Porres Charity Hospital, and Dr. Mildred N. Pareja of Cardinal Santos Medical Center, met and formally organized the PENTAMED.

The Articles of Incorporation and by-laws were subsequently drafted.  The PENTA Medical Group, (PENTAMED), Inc. was registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 13, 1994.  The late Dr. Vicente X. Genato designed and conceptualized the green logo of PENTAMED with five umbrella heads bonding which represents each of the five founding hospitals.

In the year 2000, St. Martin de Pores Charity Hospital was temporarily closed, making PENTAMED a four-member group of hospitals.  It was during the time that San Juan Medical Center offered its operating room facilities for the “OPERATION BUKOL” program of the group.  This started the active participation of San Juan Medical Center in PENTAMED activities.  They were formally accepted into the fold on April 7, 2003 making the PENTAMED a five-member group of hospitals again.

In 2012, Ospital ng Makati and Rizal Medical Center joined the PENTAMED, and in 2019, the recently accredited training program of Saint Luke’s Global Medical Center also joined the group making PENTAMED an 8 hospital POGS cluster.

In 1985, the residents from our Lady of Lourdes Hospital started rotating in St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital upon the establishment of their Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. They were then part of an inter-hospital association holding inter-hospital conferences and activities with three other hospitals: The Medical City, Polymedic General Hospital, and Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital.

Three years later, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital, upon gaining accreditation for service and training, from the Philippine Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, decided to join this consortium. Now consisting of five hospitals, the different department heads and representatives eventually decided to create a formal organization – the dawn of PENTAMED. Its name and logo was created by the late Dr. Vicente Genato. The five hospitals were represented by the following: Dr. Mildred Pareja (Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital), Dr. Florante Gonzaga (Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital), Dr. Vicente Genato (Polymedic General Hospital), Dr. Rodolfo De Guzman (St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital), and Dr. Juan Fuentes (The Medical City).

The foremost objective of this collaboration focused on the improvement of the residency training among each member hospital. Weekly conferences and fund-raising projects were carried on.

In 12993, the first Residents’ Research Paper Presentation was started. One year after, the first postgraduate conference was heal. They also conducted Clinico-Pathological conferences and case presentations. A Sports fest and a Christmas Social were held to promote camaraderie. The first Residents’ Interesting Case Presentation took place in 2000.

In 1996, PENTAMED conceptualized an outreach program involving the screening and operation of gynecologic cases. This was aptly called “Operation Bukol”.

In 2003, St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital was temporarily closed. It was replaced by San Juan Medical Center. On the other hand, Polymedic General Hospital and Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital upgraded to medical centers and were renamed Victor R. Potenciano Medical Center and Cardinal Santos Medical Center, respectively.

PENTAMED has become a well respected name in Obstetrics and Gynecology. It has continually pursued the vision of its founders towards constant improvement of each member’s residency training programs. It may not have been a simple undertaking, but PENTAMED has successfully shaped and produced excellent and competent graduates in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

We will be forever grateful to the noble contributions of Dr. Vicente Genato, Dr. Rodolfo de Guzman, and Dr. Juan Fuentes to PENTAMED. The passing away of these great mentors served as an inspiration to the organization to continue their vision of excellence and competence.

In the early 1980’s four hospitals, the Medical City (now The New Medical City), Polymedic General Hospital (now Dr. Victor R. Potenciano Memorial Medical Center), Cardinal Santos Medical Center and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital organized weekly interhospital conferences. These conferences were venues for lectures, didactics and presentation of interesting cases. St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital later joined the group.

By 1991, Dr. Juan Y. Fuentes of The Medical City, Dr. Vicente X. Genato of the then Polymedic Hospital, Dr. Florante P. Gonzaga of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Dr. Rodolfo P. De Guzman of St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital, and Dr. Mildred N. Pareja of Cardinal Santos Medical Center, chairpersons of each of the five hospitals and formally organized the PENTAMED.

The articles of incorporation and by-laws were subsequently drafted. The PENTA Medical Group, (PENTAMED) Inc. was registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 13, 1994.

The late Dr. Vicente X. Genato designed and conceptualized the green logo of PENTAMED with five umbrella heads bonding. The five umbrella heads represented each of the five member hospitals.

To finance its activities, “Philadelphia was shown in 1994 at the Greenhill Theater as a fundraising campaign. The campaign’s success was the impetus to show “Judge Dredd” the following year. In 1997, “Pentamed goes Ballroom Dancing” held at Camp Aguinaldo was another fund-raising-campaign.

To encourage research and continuing medical education, the first research paper presentation was held in December 1003 at The Medical City. The research paper presentation has since then become an annual event for the PENTAMED. In 2000, the Interesting Case Presentation became a yearly activity as well.

By 2002, to meet the challenges of the new millenium, the nine year annual research paper contest was classified into three: the Dr. Juan Y. Fuentes Award for Excellence in Prospective Research, the Dr. Rodolfo P. de Guzman Award for Excellence in Retrspective Research and the Dr. Vicente X. Genato Memorial Award for Excellence in Interesting Case Presentation. Indeed, the very pillars of PENTAMED when it started, continue to be its buttress in these changing times.

The first PENTAMED Postgraduate Course was held in June 1994 at the Manila Galleria Suites and subsequently at Club Filipino in San Juan City. It has become one of the most attended postgraduate courses in the country today. It has also becoe the major fund-raising activity of the PENTAMED.

Establishing itself as one of the major venues for professional and academic fora, PENTAMED begun conducting the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society’s (POGS) quarterly Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Conferences in 2002 with its consultant members among its discussants and reactors.

The proceeds of the fund-raising activities basically finances the PENTAMED’s noble undertaking – “OPERATION BUKOL”.

“OPERATION BUKOL”, started in 1996, is an outreach program benefitting indigent patients. These patients were screened for any pelvic masses or gynecological abnormalities. The patients are worked-up and operated on by residents of the PENTAMED. Surgeries of the first “OPERATION BUKOL” were done in St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital.

In the year 2000, St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital was temporarily closed, making the PENTAMED a four-member group of hospitals. In its said closure, San Juan Medical Center offered its operating room facilities for the PENTAMED “OPERATION BUKOL”. Thus, San Juan Medical Center begun being an active participant in PENTAMED activities.

San Juan Medical Center was formally accepted into the fold on April 7, 2003. PENTAMED was again a five-member group of hospitals.

…eighteen years of PENTAMED and sixteen years of Postgraduate Courses has engendered in its members an intensified zeal to set new goals and explore new horizons… as the PENTAMED journey continues.

It was not easy. It took almost ten years before our founders formally conceived of organizing a consortium of the Obstetrics and Gynecology deparments of the five involved hospitals (Cardinal Santos Medical Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Polymedic General Hospital, The Medical City and St. Martin de Porres Charity Hospital). The visionaries, namely, Dr. Juan Fuentes, the late Dr. Vicente Genato, Dr. Florante Gonzaga, Dr. Mildred Pareja, and Dr. Rodolfo de Guzman, decided to engage their respective residents in a rotating interhospital conference with the main goal of improving and strengthening their training programs. In 1994, the Association legally became the PENTA Medical Group, better known as PENTAMED. In the same year, they held the first of the annual Postgraduate Course in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Through the years, PENTAMED has supported and supplemented the training of the residents with the various activities it has initiated. The yearly Residents’ Research Paper Presentation and Residents’ Interesting Case Presentation became practice grounds for refining each hospital’s entries to the national counterpart.

It has not been easy. In 2000, the organization went through a rough time with the closure of St. Martin de Porres Hospital. The group became ‘whole’ again with the membership of San Juan Medical Center in 2003. In one way or the other, the PENTAMED found ways to continue its goal of enhancement and advancement of a comprehensive residency training program fo its residents. An outreach activity designed to provide assistance to our underprivileged constituents, as well as promote the residents’ education was successfully established. This was called ‘Operation Bukol’.

It will not be easy. Any organization that have lasted this long is bound to have its set of troubles. But we take refuge in our ability to withstand pressure as we continue to make our mark in our chosen field by pursuing PENTAMED’s purpose of preparing a multi-institutional cooperation in research and continuing medical education. We take pride as we continue to promote professional growth and camaraderie through our altruistic activities.

We will all look bakc. We will all look forward. And in those times, in all our memories of our colleagues, and of our training, in all our remembrance of solidarity, let us not forget our group’s main objectives for the people we serve. Let us not forget the triumph that is PENTAMED.