Prof. Agnette P. Peralta has been selected one of the Outstanding Medical Physicists in the Asia-Oceania region. This award is given by the Asia-Oceania Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (AFOMP) to individuals who have made great contributions to medical physics education, training, research, and professional development in AFOMP region in the last 20 years.
Ma’am APP, a moniker given to her by the younger generation of Filipino medical physicists, is one of the few physicists who were recruited by Dr. Celia T. Anatalio to her office, the Radiation Health Office (RHO) of the Department of Health (DOH). She joined the RHO in 1975. She was later on chosen as one of the three young physicists to be sent abroad to study medical physics. She took her master’s degree in medical physics at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
After she finished her studies and training in 1982, she went back to the Philippines and rejoined the regulatory unit, RHO-DOH. From then on, she rose from the ranks to become the director of her office in 1991. She maintained her director position until 2016 despite the restructuring of her office, which is now under DOH Philippine Food and Drug Administration with a new name, the Center for Device Regulation, Radiation Health, and Research. In 2016, she was appointed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte as Assistant Secretary for Health Regulation of the DOH until her retirement in October 2017.
Aside from her regulatory stint, Ma’am APP has also been active in teaching. She is considered one of the pioneers of the Medical Physics graduate program in the University of Santo Tomas. The program was established in 1981 and she started teaching there in 1983. She is currently a professorial lecturer II in the program where she has taught such subjects as Radiation Physics, Radiation Dosimetry, Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, and Research Methodology with Instrumentation. In 2018, she was conferred the “Distinguished Faculty” award by the University of Santo Tomas Graduate School.
Given her credentials, she is often invited to serve in a number of international organizations, committees, and projects. She is the only Filipino medical physicist to have worked in the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva as a consultant and served in the WHO Advisory Committee on Electromagnetic Fields. She is also the lone medical physicist from Asia to have been elected a member of the 14-person Main Commission of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection which she served from 2004 to 2016. Furthermore, she is the only Filipino to have been elected a Fellow of the International Organization for Medical Physics and to have been selected as one of the Outstanding Medical Physicists in the Asia-Oceania region.
She is the Founding President of the Philippine Organization of Medical Physicists, which is now known as the Society of Medical Physicists in the Republic of the Philippines (SMPRP). She is also one of the founding members of the South-East Asian Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP) where she served as president for two years, from 2010 to 2012. Her active role in both SMPRP and SEAFOMP led to the Philippines becoming the host of the South East Asian Congress of Medical Physics in 2007, 2011, and 2017.
Prof. Peralta is expected to receive her AFOMP award at the 20th Asia-Oceania Congress on Medical Physics (AOCMP) which will be held at Duangjitt Resort and Spa, Patong, Phuket, Thailand on 03-05 December 2020.
Information and Date Sources
Personal Communication – A.Peralta
The establishment of RHO- http://mpijournal.org/pdf/2020-02/MPI-2020-02-p051.pdf
Directorship period- https://hta.doh.gov.ph/agnette-dp-peralta-msc/
Establishment of UST MEDPHY program- http://mpijournal.org/pdf/2020-02/MPI-2020-02-p051.pdf
Teaching service period- https://www.iomp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/empw-2017-00.pdf
SEAFOMP info: http://mpijournal.org/pdf/2020-02/MPI-2020-02-p032.pdf