College of Medicine

After successfully establishing Cebu Doctors’ Hospital, its core founders conceived the opening of a school of medicine as another venue of service that will have a significant effect and contribution to the welfare and progress of the nation.

Through hard work and sheer determination, the Board of Directors of Cebu Doctors’ Hospital unselfishly devoted their time to secure from the Department of Education and Culture a permit to operate a medical school to be called Cebu Doctors’ College of Medicine.

On April 21,1977, the Cebu Doctors’ College of Medicine (CDCM) incorporation papers were signed and its status as a non-stock, non-profit foundation was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 21,1977.

CDCM formally opened its doors as a medical institution in June of Academic Year 1977-1978. Out of the numerous applicants, only eighty pioneer freshmen were accepted. Since then, its Board of Trustees has pursued a program of expansion which continues to this day enabling CDCM to grow and earn its mark as one of the best medical schools in the country.

In 1997, CDCM started developing the modules for integrating domestic and family violence issues in the medical curriculum in partnership with the Task Force on Social Science and Reproductive Health of the Social Development Research Center of De La Salle University, and successfully implemented them starting Academic Year 2000-2001. The Commission on Higher Education subsequently endorsed these modules to be used by all Philippine medical schools that were using the traditional method of teaching.

With CDCM’s decision in 2002 to utilize Problem-based Learning (PBL) as its teaching-learning strategy, the Medical Education Unit (MEU), together with its support committees, was established. The MEU organized and conducted the intensive and comprehensive faculty training needed to implement the innovative strategy. Starting Academic Year 2003-2004, CDCM adopted PBL as its teaching-learning strategy. There has been a significant increase in the performance of CDCM graduates in the Physician Licensure Examination beginning with the first graduates of the PBL curriculum as documented by the Professional Regulatory Board of Medicine.

On November 23, 2004, Cebu Doctors’ College attained University Status and was renamed Cebu Doctors’ University (CDU). Cebu Doctors’ College of Medicine, one of CDU’s component colleges, was renamed Cebu Doctors’ University College of Medicine (CDU-CM) and its main teaching hospital was renamed Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital (CDUH).

During Academic Year 2009-2010, the mentoring program for medical students was started to give timely counseling and support, as well as inspire, encourage, and motivate students in their studies, and monitor their academic progress by means of the student portfolio. The Subcommittee on Mentoring, under the MEU Committee on Student Affairs, was organized to manage the activities of the mentoring program, including the orientation and training of mentors, as well as monitoring the activities of the mentors.

In the pursuit of an outcome-based quality assurance system and for the purpose of rationalizing medical education in the country, with the end in view of keeping pace with the demands of national relevance and global responsiveness, the Commission on Higher Education issued CHED Memorandum Order No. 18 Series of 2016 entitled Policies, Standards, and Guidelines for the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) Program. Through this issuance, CHED set forth the program outcomes specific to the Doctor of Medicine program. Thus, CDU-CM implemented and applied the principles of Outcomes-based Education (OBE) into its curriculum starting Academic Year 2016-2017.

During Academic Year 2018-2019, blended learning was introduced. PBL tutorial (small group discussion) triggers, schedules, references, handouts, and announcements were disseminated to the students online via Google Classroom ahead of the individual class schedules. Similarly, modules for the different courses were made available to the faculty facilitators online ahead of the individual class schedules. Submission of portfolios by students and checking of portfolios by mentors were also done online. Google Meet was used to allow faculty and students to hold classes virtually as needed.

When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020, total lockdown was imposed by the government, and face-to-face academic activities were not permitted. Cebu Doctors’ University made the decision to institute a pure online teaching strategy. To prepare for this, CDU embarked on an intensive training program for the faculty members of all academic units during the summer of 2020 for them to use the newly acquired online learning management system (LMS). Brightspace by D2L, the chosen LMS, was rebranded CeLo+, the acronym for CDU’s electronic Learning online and more. CDU-CM’s Medical Informatics Committee, composed of highly computer literate faculty members, was organized to provide leadership in the integration of advances in information and communication technology (ICT) with the ever-increasing medical knowledge. This committee was tasked with the instruction of faculty members, students, and non-teaching support staff on the use of CeLo+, Google Classroom (later upgraded to Google Workspace for Education Plus), and various online video conferencing platforms needed for pure online teaching, learning, and evaluation. Before the start of Academic Year 2020-2021, CDU-CM was ready for pure online learning. With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions during the Second Semester of Academic Year 2021-2022, and with CDU-CM realizing the advantages of ICT in education, it gradually shifted from pure online back to blended learning.

Cebu Doctors’ University College of Medicine applied to the Commission on Medical Education of the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) for external accreditation. PAASCU and the Federation of Accrediting Agencies of the Philippines (FAAP) granted CDU-CM Level I accreditation status on November 25, 2022.

On March 24, 2023, Cebu Doctors’ University, including the College of Medicine, obtained its ISO 9001:2015 certification and was subsequently re-certified in 2024.

The Commission on Higher Education granted Cebu Doctors’ University College of Medicine approval to offer the Accelerated Pathway for Medicine (APMed) Program, which CDU-CM branded as EXCEL-MED or EXpedited Curriculum and Enhanced Learning in MEDicine, starting Academic Year 2024-2025. This innovative academic program allows exceptional Senior High School graduates to obtain two academic degrees, a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences degree and a Doctor of Medicine degree, in as short as 7 years and be eligible within the same year of graduation to take the Physicians Licensure Examination.

Cebu Doctors’ University College of Medicine continues to mold learners to become physicians skilled in the science and art of medicine, true to its vision of producing transformational physicians. It also ensures that the latter achieve the ten program outcomes of the Doctor of Medicine program as enumerated in the Commission on Higher Education Memorandum Order Number 18, Series of 2016.