Behind The Science Podcast

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Roy Joshua Gerona about the Doctors To The Barrio (DTTB) Program, what a day in rural healthcare actually looks like, the challenges of serving underserved communities, and why he chose this path.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Renerio Gentallan Jr. about his study on the taxonomic identity of "lagundi", a group of medicinal shrubs long confused with one another due to decades of conflicting nomenclatural revisions. Despite lagundi-based products generating hundreds of millions of pesos in sales in the Philippines, the exact species being used and studied has remained ambiguous, with some specimens historically misidentified even in national pharmacopeia records. Using complete chloroplast genome sequencing alongside morphological and statistical analyses of over 2,000 herbarium specimens, the study clarified the species boundaries within this complex. The findings support reinstating Vitex elmeri as a distinct species and describe a new species, Vitex arvensis. The new species is a hybrid between V. bicolor Willd. and V. elmeri Moldenke, and also proposed as a new endemic species to the Philippines.
📚Reference: Gentallan RP Jr, Sengun S, Bartolome MCB, Quiñones KJO, Coronado NB, Borromeo TH, Timog EBS. 2024. The Vitex trifolia complex (Lamiaceae) in the Philippines. PhytoKeys. 248:1–40.

In this episode, we talk with Mr. Ramil Ramos about his study on flood and landslide susceptibility mapping in the City of Mati, Davao Oriental. Using a GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis integrated with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (MCDA-AHP), the study generated hazard susceptibility maps and examined how urban expansion from 2017 to 2024 has increasingly encroached into high-risk zones.
📚Reference: Ramos, R. L., & Cabrera, J. S. (2026). GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA-AHP) for flood and landslide susceptibility mapping and urban sprawl assessment in the Mati City, Davao Oriental, Philippines. Davao Research Journal, 17(2), 56–67.

We talk with Dr. John Jefferson Besa and Dr. Ella Mae Masamayor about their study on prolonged hospital stays among internal medicine patients admitted at the Philippine General Hospital. By reviewing the medical records of 386 patients admitted in 2019, prolonged length of stay was found in almost a fifth of emergency admissions and a quarter of elective admissions. They also discussed the factors associated with prolonged length of stay.📚Reference: Besa, J. J. V., Masamayor, E. M. I., Tamondong-Lachica, D. R., & Palileo-Villanueva, L. M. (2023). Prevalence and predictors of prolonged length of stay among patients admitted under general internal medicine in a tertiary government hospital in Manila, Philippines: a retrospective cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 23, 50.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Nicko Caluya about his study on whether the size of the overlay field of view (OFOV) in head-mounted displays affects a person's ability to memorize spatial locations. OFOV refers to the small window through which virtual objects are visible in optical see-through AR headsets, and narrower OFOVs are often criticized as a limitation of the technology. Using a simulated head-mounted display with three different OFOV sizes, the study tested 18 participants on their ability to memorize and recall the locations of virtual object pairs.📚Reference: Caluya, N. R., Plopski, A., Sandor, C., Fujimoto, Y., Kanbara, M., & Kato, H. (2022). Does overlay field of view in head-mounted displays affect spatial memorization? Computers & Graphics, 102, 554–565.