Islands To Get It-Based Healthcare

[Medic Mike]

Sunday, November 3, 2013

SICK residents in Bantayan and Camotes islands may soon consult clinical specialists of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila without going there.

The consultation can be done through information communication technology (ICT), said Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III.

Dubbed the RxBox project of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Department of Health (DOH), the service extends health care assistance to the underserved areas in the country through ICT.

“There are 10 of these in the country and DOST 7 Director Rene Burt Llanto had assured Cebu is included,” Davide said.

He said he finds the system appropriate for Camotes and Bantayan Islands because they don’t have doctors to analyze results of tests.

He said the project addresses three main health problems: low doctor-patient ratio, concentration of medical specialists in urban areas, and services that are difficult to provide in underserved regions.

The Cebu Provincial Socio-Economic Profile of 2012 showed that Capitol has 16 provincial and district hospitals.

It has a district hospital in Barangay Ticad, Bantayan and none in any of the four towns in Camotes group of islands: Pilar, Poro, San Francisco and Tudela.

Each of the towns has a doctor and a nurse.

Remote

RxBox, according to the National Telehealth Center in University of the Philippines (UP) Manila website, is a biomedical appliance that collects the patient’s data and transmits these through the internet or GPRS (for remote sites). And integrated by the central server through the middle ware to the central operations center (COC) at the UP-PGH in Manila.

The patient’s electrocardiogram (ECG), heart, blood and pulse rates, and blood oxygenation are sent to the PGH where experts can examine them.

Through RxBox’s capability for video consultation, clinical experts can inspect patients and assist rural doctors in treating them.

RxBox is funded by DOST and developed by researchers at the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute, the UP National Institute of Physics and the National Telehealth Center in UP Manila.

 

A good step in the right direction for modern health care.

[JJReyes]

SICK residents in Bantayan and Camotes islands may soon consult clinical specialists of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila without going there.

 

Mentioning about Philippine General Hospital in Manila brings back memories. I was a member of a civic organization when someone in the group learned that the operating rooms at PGH lacked air-conditioning. The heat and humidity were the biggest complaint by the surgical teams. We managed to raise money for air conditioners. The hospital administrator sent the group a bill for electricity claiming she did not have the budget. Either we pay or the air conditioners would be shut down. 

 

There were several members who were influential. The hospital administrator soon learned someone in our group was trying to get her reassigned to Mindanao. It was an idle threat but the issue of our group being responsible to pay for electricity was dropped. 

 

Philippine healthcare sounds like heaven today. I recall a government doctor in Bicol asking me to send him my toy microscope with limited magnification because he had none. 

Edited November 3, 2013 by JJReyes