About ASMPH

The school and its guiding principles

The ASMPH Vision: Molding the Doctor of the Future

The Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health leads in healing and transforming lives through systemic, systematic and structural changes that improve the health of individuals and communities.

The ASMPH Mission: Our Reason for Being

The Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health forms physicians-for-others who are outstanding clinicians, dynamic leaders and social catalysts.

ASMPH forms outstanding clinicians with mastery of knowledge, skills and compassion to care for the health of individuals and communities; dynamic leaders with expertise to manage people, systems and resources; and social catalysts with competencies to help address ill-health, poverty and inequity.

ASMPH contributes to the University’s efforts in nation-building through health education, research and service. In all of this, the ASMPH is animated by the Filipino, Catholic and Jesuit character of the Ateneo de Manila University.

Core Values: The Heart of a Healer

The Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health seeks to nurture its faculty, students and staff within an environment driven by specific institutional values; a culture which supports thought, belief and action towards the ASMPH vision.

Synergy

The combined power of a group of things when they are working together that is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately*

The ASMPH places great value on collaboration, teamwork, and networking.  Significant change can only be achieved by stakeholders working together toward a common goal, with the strength of each contribution having a resultant impact that is greater than what a simple addition of parts would yield.

Rigor

High standards*

The ASMPH believes that achieving the best possible outcome requires striving to fulfill one’s task in the best way possible, not being content with merely doing the right thing, but doing it in the right way as well.  Living out the value of rigor requires discipline and attention to detail, giving to each task the due focus and care that is required to accomplish it well in a timely and appropriate manner.

Integrity

Wholeness and unity; the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles*

The envisioned graduate of the ASMPH is a doctor for others whose values are lived out in daily life firmly and consistently, whose decisions have a solid basis in sufficient reflection, contemplation, and a dispassionate consideration of what would best serve the needs of one’s self and others, and whose word may be relied upon.   The ASMPH seeks to form a community of kindred spirits among its students, faculty and staff with the same mindset and heartset.

Life-Long Learning

The process of gaining knowledge and skills throughout your life*

Medicine is described as an ever-changing science, marked by rapid progress and shifts in approach, and at times in perspective, in tandem with the ever-emerging new knowledge and deeper understanding that research, science and technology yields over time.

Yet more than merely having medical knowledge, the envisioned graduate of the ASMPH is expected to always seek to improve himself and herself holistically, not just in the mind, but also in the heart and the soul.  The ASMPH believes that true learning bears fruit not just in terms of broader and deeper knowledge, but also in terms of deeper and more meaningful relationships with one’s self, with others, with the environment, and with God.  Such a quest must necessarily be a lifelong endeavor.

Cura Personalis

Care for the entire person**

The ASMPH believes that the true physician for others is committed not just to participate in caring for the body, but also in healing the soul.  Likewise, in forming the physician for others through the rigors and challenges of five years in the school of medicine, the ASMPH is committed to forming not just the mind but also the heart and soul, the entire person of each and every student, faculty and staff. 

Magis

Choosing what is conducive to the greater service of God and the universal good**

The envisioned graduate of the ASMPH is driven by a desire to be of greater service to God and others, whose chosen actions and plans spring forth from this deep desire.  At times it may mean doing more, at other times it may mean taking a much needed rest; at times stepping forward, at times backward; but at all times doing things insofar as they serve the greater good, Ad majorem Dei gloriam (for the greater glory of God).

Persons for Others

Men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ, and for others, including the least of their neighbors**

The envisioned graduate of the ASMPH is a physician whose decisions and actions are rooted in a love for God and neighbor, leading to a commitment to be of service to others, especially the poor, and a deep faith that compels him and her to work for justice.

Love of Country

Patriotism - the feeling of loving your country more than any others and being proud of it*

As part of a Filipino University, the ASMPH is animated by a love for our country, and is committed to help promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, adhere to the rule of law, and participate in building a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace***.

*from the Cambridge Dictionary**adapted from www.ignatianspirituality.com***adapted from the 1987 Philippine Constitution Preamble

The ASMPH Educational Philosophy: Our Strategic Road Map

The ASMPH Roadmap encapsulates our educational philosophy. Rooted in our core values, our strategic focus areas form the pillars that support our mission and vision. The ASMPH is committed to building a strong house focusing on achieving health for all, especially the poor.

The ASMPH embraces an Educational Philosophy that regards learning as being best achieved in a community of kindred spirits through the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm of context, experience, reflection, action and evaluation; that regards the teacher as a facilitator and an enabler of each individual student's potential as a person; and that regards each student as an adult-learner deserving excellent formation and preparation to become physician-leaders-for-others committed to lifelong learning.