by Aileen U. Agbanlog, MD
Rheumatology Fellow, St. Luke’s Medical Center

In Rheumatology, opportunities are truly endless. As a fellow, we were always given a chance to attend various international educational conferences.  These were at all times made possible by the full support and encouragement of my mentors Dr. Sandra Navarra and Dr. Juan Javier Lichauco; fueled by the generous efforts of the LUISA project.  My recent awesome experience was when I was awarded a travel bursary to attend the bi-annual EULAR course on SLE last August 30- September 4 at Pisa, Italy.  It was an intensive 6- day course focusing on different aspects of Systemic Lupus Erythematousus, from pathophysiology to diverse systemic manifestations, molecular mechanisms and new trends and guidelines in treatment for better outcomes.

Each patient always has a unique story to tell.  Last 24th July 2009, 5 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and a patient with the unusual combination of tophaceous gout with haemophilic arthropathy shared their stories to the third year medical students at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, as part of the Medicine II – Module 4 learning activities. As a Rheumatology fellow, I attended this “patient-partner” workshop along with my co-fellows and faculty staff to supervise and observe.

It was a unique experience to have the patients serve as teachers to the future doctors. They demonstrated how to conduct musculoskeletal examination and displayed the signs of rheumatic conditions.  I noticed that the medical students were pleasantly surprised to hear their patients effortlessly talk about their illness using medical jargon.  There was none of those tongue-twisting moments that medical professionals often hear when laymen attempt to speak their technical language.  These patients are very knowledgeable about their disease, hence, they are able to impart the “essentials” of rheumatoid arthritis, gout and haemophilic arthropathy to the students.