About

Maria Isabel M. Atienza | MD, MHPEd

Our mission remains the formation of doctors—of Lukan doctors who aspire to be among the very best physicians in the Philippines, equipped to find their place and their own niche in the practice of medicine. – Dean Maria Isabel M. Atienza | MD, MHPEd

WELCOME MESSAGE FOR AY 2026-2027

Welcome to St. Luke’s Medical Center William H. Quasha Memorial.

Over the past academic year, we have been holding coffee breaks, conversations, and focus group discussions with different members of our community—our students, faculty, Technical Associates, and the Center for Innovation staff. These conversations were an opportunity to understand how things are going, how medical education is developing, and how we can move forward amid the changes taking place around us, particularly in technology.

Through these conversations, we have come to realize that our community spans several generations, each of whom experienced medicine and medical education differently.

I was struck by something a colleague at the Medical Center once told me: “Don’t you think we’re so lucky that we went through all the phases of learning and medical education?” Many of us have indeed witnessed and experienced these different phases.

Several years ago, medical education was largely centered on books. We carried heavy textbooks, went to the library, and spent hours reading and studying. Then came journal references, PubMed, the internet, and now, artificial intelligence.

What does this tell us?

Each innovation has expanded our access to education. Today, information is so readily available that anyone with a cellphone can learn something at a moment’s notice. While we once had to go to the library and search through references, information is now quite literally at our fingertips.

Books, journals, libraries, and other traditional resources are certainly not obsolete. But access to information has improved and expanded tremendously.

Technology has also changed the way we live. We no longer memorize telephone numbers because our devices store them for us. We no longer memorize passwords because we have systems that securely manage them. We rarely use physical road maps because navigation is readily available on our phones.

These changes remind us that there are indeed generational shifts in medical education, happening almost as quickly as healthcare itself is changing. Fortunately, medical education is also catching up.

This brings us to an important question: If information is always available, can we learn medicine faster? Can we make students graduate sooner?

The answer is not necessarily.

Although information is more accessible than ever, there are many other things that come with the formation of a doctor. In fact, just this morning, on my way here, I asked ChatGPT that very question, just to see if we were aligned. Its answer was that while technology and AI can enhance education, they cannot simply speed it up.

There are skills that need to be developed. There is experience that needs to be gained. There is mentoring and interaction with doctors and faculty. These are essential parts of the process through which we determine that someone is ready to become a fully fledged physician.

Access to information is no longer the greatest challenge. Judgment is.

This is at the very core of education: How do we use information for the right patient, in the right situation, at the right moment?

Those decisions cannot simply be downloaded. They require learning, studying, experience, and practice.

AI, therefore, is very exciting. We talk about it extensively, even in our Executive Committee meetings. We attend medical education conferences where it is one of the most prominent topics of discussion. There is tremendous potential in this technology.

But, as with any innovation, we are confronted with important questions: How will we use it? When and where should we use it? Where does it best fit within the education of our students? And how will we measure its impact?

These are the challenges we now face.

And so, we want to continue the conversation.

The tools have changed, but our mission has not.

Our mission remains the formation of doctors—of Lukan doctors who aspire to be among the very best physicians in the Philippines, equipped to find their place and their own niche in the practice of medicine.

That is our mission, and we believe that we are all one in pursuing it.

I invite everyone to continue these conversations. Please feel free to open discussions with our faculty, Technical Associates, and administrative officers. This is a continuing conversation because education itself is evolving so quickly.

We welcome the change. We welcome the ideas. And we welcome opportunities to explore how we can deliver medical education better.

And so, I welcome you to Academic Year 2026–2027 with excitement for what lies ahead, an awareness of the challenges before us, and a willingness to embrace the unknown as we continue learning about technology and artificial intelligence.

Above all, we remain united with every student and every member of our community in our commitment to provide the best education we can—and to help bring you closer to your goal of becoming the best physician you dream of being.

Thank you very much, and have a good morning.