Dr. Mario Panaligan intensified the character of PSMID, building its mark and recognition by many Filipinos, through the dissemination of facts, figures and essential information.  The Information Technology (IT) committee was enhanced, going digital in 2018, with frequent exposures in the Social Media through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, with various infographic materials and discussion tackling common infection-related problems like antibiotic use and sepsis, and the important infectious diseases including HIV, TB, dengue, leptospirosis, polio, rabies, typhoid fever and other tropical infections.  Webcast conferences involving the members and fellows-in-training were also started.  In addition, advocacy calls on immunization, HIV, rational antibiotic use, infection control, emerging and re-emerging infections, and TB were made known.  Truly, with the re-emergence of outbreaks such as measles, dengue, diphtheria and polio, plus the counterfeit rabies vaccine in 2019, this measure has become very helpful to convey timely and crucial information.

During this period, PSMID maintained its collaboration with the DOH and other medical organizations to sustain its programs for the control of infections.  Healthcare policies and clinical guidelines were created for the six (6) major emerging and re-emerging infections, namely: leptospirosis, meningococcemia, MERS-CoV, Ebola, anthrax and highly pathogenic influenza.  The PSMID spearheaded the HIV summit in August 2019, in cooperation with PIDSP and Philippine Infectious Disease Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (PIDSOG), which tackled the management of HIV on women in the child-bearing age, pregnancy, infants, children and adolescents.

As TB remains a major problem in the country, PSMID has been quite active through its various programs against the disease.  For 2019, it hosted the World TB day with the theme: “Find, Treat and Prevent: #EndTBNowNa, participated in the End TB Fun Run, held a PCP Pre-convention program on TB diagnosis and management, and joined the establishment of the Philippines TB Research Network. The society’s main accomplishment was the arrangement and conduct of The UNION APRC 2019, with the theme: Unity in Diversity: One Against TB and Other Lung Diseases; April 23-26, 2019 at the PICC, an international conference, with Philippine Coalition Against TB (PhilCAT), Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP), American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Philippine Chapter and the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS). With a very successful run, various topics and compelling issues on TB and other lung conditions such as asthma and COPD, bacterial and non-bacterial causes of pneumonia, and vaccines were discussed.

The PSMID-Pfizer InteRactive Anti-Infective Consensus Meeting (PPRISM)  ended its 10^th year collaborative activity for the Inter-hospital Clinico-Pathologic Conference (CPC) in 2018.  With its foremost goal of providing a venue for exchange of scientific ideas, updates, and best practices among the training institutions, developing the critical learning abilities of our fellows-in-training, the PSMID launched a re-formatted PRISM: PSMID’s Recognized Intricacies, Synchronized Mechanisms: The Dr. Manolito L. Chua Memorial Fellows’ Clinico-Pathological Conference in 2019.  Still with an educational competitive set-up, each fellow from the opposing teams would discuss different cases individually, with a collective consensus for the diagnoses and management by group.

In 2019, outcomes-based curriculum has been started and implemented in the various training programs. Important teaching workshops and learning modules were organized and handled by PSMID, which include: media relations, test construction and microcurriculum, and MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine under the platform of Future Learn.  During this time, The Medical City was recognized and became the 7^th training institution for fellowship in infectious diseases.