Dr. JV Prodigalidad - Urology Clinic

of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital from 1994-1998. After passing the Diplomate exams given by the Philippine Board of Urology in 1999, he decided to train in an innovative field that was gaining popularity worldwide but not available in the Philippines. He proceeded to do Fellowship in Urologic Oncology and Laparoscopy at the Institut Jules Bordet of the Universite Libre du Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium from 2000-2001 under the tutelage of Prof Roland Van Velthoven. In 2001, he was awarded a Diploma in Urologic Laparoscopy from the Institut de Reserche Contre les Cancers de L’appareil Digestif, in Strasbourg, France. Upon his return to the Philippines in 2001, being the first urologist to be formally trained in such a specialty, he started the practice of Laparoscopic Urology in the country. He began sharing this knowledge in various hospitals both in Metro Manila and in the provinces. He initiated the incorporation of laparoscopic urology into the Residency Training program in Urology at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI). This was later included in the curricula of all Urology residency training programs in the Philippines by the Philippine Board of Urology. In 2003, he performed the first laparoscopic (hand-assisted) donor nephrectomy in the country. Realizing that this procedure could be of benefit to living kidney donors, he went on to doing Clinical Observership in Laparoscopic Urology at the Brady Urological Institute of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland USA under Dr Louis Kavoussi focusing on Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy. After some time, its regular practice at NKTI led to the provision for laparoscopic donor nephrectomy for all living kidney transplant donors under the Z-package of the Philhealth. In 2009, he was granted Accreditation as Console Surgeon of the Da Vinci Robotic System by Intuitive Surgical at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Minimally Invasive Surgical Skills Center, Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, SAR. This made him one of the first robotic surgeons in the country. He authored a chapter entitled “Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy” in the book entitled “Endourology Progress” which was published by Springer Publications in 2019. Recognizing the difficulties of finding Endourology training programs abroad, he created the country’s first comprehensive Laparoscopic and Endourologic Fellowship program which was offered at the NKTI in January of 2020. This gave young Filipino
urology graduates an opportunity to further hone their skills in this specialized field without having to leave the country. In 2022, he published the first Training Manual in Laparoscopic Urology in the
country along with 3 other authors. This would serve as a manual for all residents
and fellows in training on the basics of laparoscopic urology. It also provides
urologists who wish to pursue training in laparoscopy with a guide on the basic dry
lab exercises and the principles of various urologic laparoscopic procedures. Presently, he continues to propagate the knowledge and training of urologists in the field of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Laparoscopic Urology as well as Urologic Oncology in the Philippines as well as in other Asian countries. He is a currently a Director of the Philippine Association of Laparoscopic and Endoscopic Surgeons (PALES) and the East Asian Society of Endourology. He is also the immediate past president of the Philippine Endourological Society and a past president of the Philippine Society of Urologic Oncologists. He is the head of the Section of Minimally Invasive Surgery/Endourology, and Vice-
Chair of the Department of Urology at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. His passion for training and education in Endourology and Urologic Oncology propels him to search for even bigger growth opportunities which he can possibly share with the next generation of aspiring young urologists who have the same interest and passion. All these with the intention of bringing the best positive outcomes for the patients he serves.