MAKATI CITY, Metro Manila- Dr. Jaime Montoya, Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) Executive Director, led the Council’s 34^th anniversary celebration on 17 March 2016 at the New World Makati Hotel.

With the theme “Going Global: Increasing International Partnerships in Research and Innovation for Health,” the celebration focused on the globalization of research and innovation for health and the growing interest for international research collaborations.

“The Council’s accomplishments today are built standing on the shoulders of our great pioneers,” Dr. Montoya said as he delivered his welcome remarks for the celebration.

Dr. Jaime Montoya as he leads the 34th PCHRD anniversary celebration

“We are driven in delivering products and services which strengthen healthcare delivery and industry, upholding our core values of passion for excellence, culture of performance and teamwork, with high regard for work ethics, responsive and committed to public service, and dynamic involvement.”

According to Dr. Montoya, passing the recent external audit of Quality Management System (QMS) of the Council is just one proof their systems are geared towards client satisfaction.

Before discussing the program flow of the anniversary celebration, Dr. Montoya thanked the commitment and collaboration of their local and global partners such as the Department of Health (DOH), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Regional Health Research and Development Consortia (RHRDCs) Philippine Biomedical Device Innovation Consortium (PBDIC), UK Medical Research Council, Institut Pasteur, ASEAN-NDI, Western Pacific Index Medicus (WPRIM), Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (APAME) and Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED).

The said partnerships led to the success of the Global Forum on Research and Innovation for Health (Forum 2015) which generated new and significant health partnerships fostering researches and innovation that will impact health across geographical boundaries.

“After the Forum 2015, we’ll further our partnership with COHRED on research fairness initiative (RFI) and in coming up with a technical position paper on making the Philippines a research hub on global health and climate change,” he said.

Dr. Montoya also shared their newly forged partnership with the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) emphasizing that this will help build interdisciplinary collaborations and facilitate the sharing of knowledge to address global health challenges.