{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T02:07:29Z","timestamp":1779070049110,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"University of the Philippines Manila","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]],"date-time":"2026-05-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1778803200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Acta Med Philipp"],"abstract":"<jats:p>A singular medical incident can alert health officials to an emerging, if not widespread, but possibly undetected public\u00a0health concern.\nOur issue contains a remarkable case of a ruptured hepatic abscess in a 3-year-old, which turned out to be Methicillinresistant\u00a0Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by authors Torrico and Tarnate.\u00a0The concern is that the infection is communityacquired,\u00a0and the patient was immunocompetent. This sounds the alarm for the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)\u00a0in the communities and calls for a response from health authorities to investigate, analyze, and propose solutions for such\u00a0a sentinel event.\nWe need to support these efforts and, in this issue, we publish such work from our investigators. Antimicrobial resistance\u00a0is an urgent global health concern.\u00a0The impact is magnified in low to middle-income countries where health risks are high,\u00a0and health infrastructure is weak. Thus, it is imperative that determinants of AMR are scrutinized to allow crafting of\u00a0focused strategies to combat the problem.\nThe article by Dela Cruz and Hernandez on the prevalence and practices of antibiotic misuse among adult residents of\u00a0Rodriguez, Rizal, contributes to this analysis.\u00a0The paper reveals a disturbing prevalence of self-medication and identifies\u00a0barriers to accessing proper health education and care. This is a global problem, and the paper from Brazil relates the observation\u00a0of community pharmacists of antibiotic misuse to the rise of antimicrobial resistance.\nDela Cruz and Hernandez recommend stricter antibiotic regulation, and this falls squarely into the scope of concern\u00a0of another article in this issue, the \u201cResearch Needs in Philippine Pharmaceutical Sciences: A Qualitative Perspective from\u00a0Regulatory and Clinical Research Sectors of the Pharmaceutical Industry\u201d by Pena and co-authors.\u00a0Interestingly, while\u00a0drug registration and clinical trials were the focus of the paper, it may be a desired expansion of the regulatory reach of the\u00a0industry to temper the use of antibiotics as it is being dispensed to end users.\u00a0Antimicrobial stewardship involves ethical\u00a0promotion of use and equitable access to appropriate treatment, and these concerns require the responsible participation of the\u00a0pharmaceutical industry.\nHealth challenges are complex. The analysis of these challenges requires surveillance of literature for sentinel events, use\u00a0of community-based research to investigate phenomena, and system mapping to identify relevant sectors to improve strategy\u00a0and to involve relevant stakeholders.\nWe support this type of scholarship, which seeks to expand the focus from isolated clinical interventions towards placing\u00a0a spotlight on relevant work that will lead to impactful reform of broad health ecosystems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.47895\/amp.v60i9.14304","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T02:04:54Z","timestamp":1779069894000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Mapping Health Systems to Understand Health Phenomena \u2014 and why Publishing this Work Matters"],"prefix":"10.47895","volume":"60","author":[{"given":"Angela G.","family":"Sison-Aguilar, MD, MSc, MBA","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology\u2028College of Medicine and Philippine General Hospital\u2028University of the Philippines Manila"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"27557","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]]},"container-title":["Acta Medica Philippina"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/actamedicaphilippina.upm.edu.ph\/index.php\/acta\/article\/download\/14304\/7127","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/actamedicaphilippina.upm.edu.ph\/index.php\/acta\/article\/download\/14304\/7127","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T02:04:54Z","timestamp":1779069894000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/actamedicaphilippina.upm.edu.ph\/index.php\/acta\/article\/view\/14304"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.47895\/amp.v60i9.14304","relation":{},"ISSN":["2094-9278","0001-6071"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2094-9278","type":"electronic"},{"value":"0001-6071","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,15]]}}}