Write more health books, world's largest health, science publisher urges Filipino pros

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino nurses and doctors should write more health and science books for the world market, a leading international publisher of health and science books urged recently.

Elsevier, the world’s largest and top publisher of health and science information, issued this encouragement to Filipino health professionals after announcing that it has already tapped Dr. Ray Gapuz, popular nursing education expert, as the first Filipino author in its stable and was on the lookout for more to come up with more Filipino-authored books that would cater to more than 30 million readers of their publications worldwide as part of its market expansion in the Asia Pacific region.

Gerrit Bos, Elsevier Asia Pacific managing director, said that their move in commissioning Filipino health professionals to author books would serve a “dual purpose” since these books could be distributed in the local nursing market as well as in other countries.

Bos pointed out that the international distribution of Filipino authored books on health and science will be an opportunity for the Philippine nursing industry to export their excellent work to other countries, especially noting that the country has the most mature nursing curriculum in Asia.

 “I was impressed, especially with the talent of Filipino nurses,” Bos said.

For its initial venture Mosby-Elsevier Asia Pacific has invited Dr. Ray Gapuz, the country’s premier nursing reviewer to write two books for the company – Mosby’s Essential Concepts for the Philippine Nurse Licensure Exam for the local market and Mosby’s The ABC’s of Passing the NCLEX-RN for worldwide release.

Now part of the roster of authors writing for Elsevier’s subsidiary imprints, Gapuz admitted that he felt privileged.

 “It has always been a dream to write for Elsevier, specifically Mosby,” he said, “since their books are number one globally and also in the Philippines.”

“So this is really a high point as this already opens the door for the other health and science authors in the country to write for the world’s leading publisher,” Gapuz said.

Accordingly, with the publication of the books authored by Gapuz, Bos hopes that the Philippines can be an example of exporting not only nurses, but their knowledge, content, and study methods to the global market.

Just this year, Elsevier was honored by the Special Libraries Association in the US as ‘The Most Influential Publisher of the Last 100 Years in BioMedicine and Life Sciences.” One of its many bestselling books includes Gray’s Anatomy, which is a universal landmark in medicine ever since Drs. Henry Grat and H.V. Carter published the first edition in 1858.

Elsevier said Gapuz was chosen to write the initial publications due to his expertise in conducting NCLEX RN reviews in various countries worldwide and the strength of his academic qualifications having graduated summa cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas and a topnotcher in the 1992 Nursing Board Exam where he obtained a rating of 89.20.     — Rainier Allan Ronda