Perla Dizon Santos Ocampo, MD ONS was a Filipina

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

Early life and education

Perla Santos-Ocampo was born in Dagupan,

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan ( pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Pangasinan, ; ilo, Probinsia ti Pangasinan; tl, Lalawigan ng Pangasinan), is a coastal province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capit ...

on July 25, 1931. She pursued a medical degree at the University of the Philippines Manila and graduated in 1955. She also pursued post-graduate pediatrics training at the UP-Philippine General Hospital, and a fellowship at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

in Cleveland, Ohio in the United States.

Career

The policy of the Philippine Department of Health on diarrhea-related health concerns was based on Santos-Ocampo's research on diarrheal disease. Her research on the relation of malnutrition and child growth and development was instrumental to the country's fight against child malnutrition. Santos-Ocampo also served as the Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Manila where she was noted for developing academic programs to increase the quality of health education offered by the university. She was also instrumental to the establishment of the National Institutes of Health, the National Graduate School of the Health Sciences, and the National Telehealth Center. Santos-Ocampo was honored as a National Scientist of the Philippines on 2011.

Death

Perla Santos-Ocampo died on June 29, 2012. She died of respiratory failure due to

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos-Ocampo, Perla 1931 births People from Dagupan University of the Philippines Manila alumni Filipino pediatricians National Scientists of the Philippines 2012 deaths Deaths from colorectal cancer 20th-century Filipino medical doctors 21st-century Filipino medical doctors Ihsan Doğramacı Family Health Foundation Prize laureates