On October 25, 2019, in its 50th year, the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology (PSMO) launched a book entitled, “BULAWAN: Interviews with Filipino Medical Oncologists”. Sifted from interviews and conversations with medical oncologists, the book delves with the society’s golden times and the things that mattered beyond.
“This book in your hands is a compendium of personal accounts of individuals bearing witness to the lived experience of many a cancer journey. From their training as would-be medical oncologists to their struggles with sharing the burden with patients and their families to their involvement with the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology (PSMO), and even to their ensuing appreciation of a meaningful life in a subspecialty that is constantly beleaguered by quotidian ebbs and surges of survival and death, these are the voices of men and women who have learned to embrace both the joy and suffering they see around them, who became intimate with whatever it is—remission or relapse, pain or comfort, adequacy or poverty…”
“What you will read are authentic voices by colleagues and friends. Some are succinct, while others are lengthy and demanding of time and introspection. ey are not inexorably asking us to accept, to respond, or to even change our views about the subspecialty and about life in general. ey simply summon, as did Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner,” that we stop to catch their tales, setting aside for a minute the chores at hand. In a world of hashtags, real-time connections, and short attention spans, can we spare part of our time to step back, to listen, and to be genuinely present?”
“Maybe by mindful listening and deep reading, we will unravel certain codons in our DNA to appreciate what the interviewees really mean and what PSMO hopes to become beyond its fifty years.”
