1 May 2025

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and University of Adelaide strengthened partnership to provide more faculty members of medical schools in the Philippines with world-class and technologically advanced training on simulation-based medical education.

Simulation-based medical education (SBME), widely practiced at leading medical schools around the world, uses realistic scenarios, tools, and technologies – such as manikins, virtual reality, and standardized patients – to replicate clinical environments and allow healthcare learners to practice and refine their skills in a safe, controlled setting.

In the second leg of the CHED transnational education mission, CHED Secretary Popoy De Vera met with the officials of the University of Adelaide to boost and expand the training program in SBME which will be delivered in collaboration with the University of the Philippine (UP) Manila.

The Philippine delegation also toured the University of Adelaide’s Adelaide Health Simulation (AHS) to explore its cutting-edge simulation technologies and gain insights on how to effectively and efficiently deliver the health simulation training to Filipino medical educators.

The University of Adelaide AHS is recognized as a world-class and most technologically advanced healthcare simulation institution in Australasia.

“This training program on simulation-based medical education is in line with the Doktor Para Sa Bayan Law instructing the Commission to increase access to medical education by helping establish at least one public medical school in every region in the country. But the goal is to not only make medical education accessible but also globally-competitive. This partnership is part of CHED’s long-term vision to create a future where every Filipino medical student, regardless of region, has access to the best education possible,” De Vera said.

“President Bongbong Marcos has given a clear directive to the Commission to facilitate opportunities for the faculty members of our HEIs to upskill and reskill to ensure that Filipino students are provided with quality education and our medical schools continue to produce world-class doctors who can practice the profession all over the world or serve our underserved communities,” De Vera said.

“We thank CHED for trusting UP Manila to partner with the University of Adelaide in the training of faculty of new Colleges of Medicine of our SUCs. Through technology-driven simulation-based education students will be able to practice how it is to be doctors, even before they reach the clinics. They will be able to experience clinical situations, and procedures on hi-fidelity mannequins and task trainers to ensure that they are ready to meet their patients ” UP Manila Chancellor Michael Tee said.

In 2020, CHED has signed an agreement with University of Adelaide to cooperate on capacity building of educators from Philippine HEIs. The agreement facilitated the training of thirty (30) faculty members from top medical schools in the country – University of the Philippines (UP) Manila , West Visayas State University (WVSU), and Mindanao State University-General Santos (MSU-GenSan) – on simulation-based medical education at University of Adelaide’s Adelaide Health Simulation (AHS) in 2022.

Moreover, one hundred seven (107) faculty members received a faculty development workshop from the University of Adelaide delivered online in 2023. Fifty-two (52) medical educators were trained at UP Manila by experts from University of Adelaide in 2024.

Participants received comprehensive training on simulation-based education, including business modeling, governance structures, equipment operation, curriculum integration, and the essential training required to establish and sustain purpose-built simulation centers.

Now, CHED is expanding this cutting-edge training program, in partnership with UP Manila, to upskill another set of faculty members from four or five medical schools in the country who have existing simulation-based medical education equipment.

“Our plan is to add four or five medical schools, public or private, who are also using the simulation-based medical equipment to create a bigger network. Two of the schools identified joined the Australia education mission – the University of Northern Philippines, and Don Mariano Marcos State University,” De Vera said.

Notably, CHED has been providing public medical schools in the country grants to procure state-of-the-art, high-fidelity mannequins and task-trainers to elevate the quality of medical education and training in the country.

(SIGNED)
J. PROSPERO E. DE VERA III, DPA
CHED Secretary