university of the philippines manila national telehealth center mhealth in the philippines alvin b....
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University of the Philippines Manila National Telehealth Center
mHealth in the
Philippines
Alvin B. Marcelo, MD
Goals for this Presentation
Provide examples of how we use mobile phones for health in the Philippines
Present results of our research on using mHealth for delivering care to remote underserved areas
State of (ill-) health: Why?
Philippines 90 million people Growing at 2 million per year 7,107 islands Maldistribution of doctors and nurses to urban
areas and few/none in rural areas
Opportunity for mHealth
Philippines Three wireless providers 75% penetration rate (with several having more
than one line) “the texting capital of the world with 2 BILLION text
messages exchanged everyday”
NATIONAL TELEHEALTH CENTERUniversity of the Philippines Manila
Quality health care through ICT...
OneHEALTH Program
eMedicine (Telemedicine)
eLearning for Health
eRecords (CHITS)
Telemedicine in the Philippines
CICT 2004
SERVICERESEARCH
6 years of experience and collaborations with DOH-DTTBs
with research support from DOST
DOST, 2008 DTTBs 2008-2011
How do we do Telemedicine?
We train health workers how to use the cellphone to effectively collaborate with doctors, specialists, and other health workers in their region.
Doctor-to-the-Barrio
Doctor-lesssite
NTSPCentral
Internal Medicine
Ophtha
Dermatology
Radiology
Pediatrics
Others
PGH and DOH regional hospitals
4th, 5th, 6th class LGUs
TELEMEDICINE How it Works
*** Ethical, legal, and social framework for the practice of telemedicine
PGH and DOH regional hospitals
TELEMEDICINE How it Works
We built a network of doctors.We defined guidelines and protocols. We trained the network.We use SMS, MMS, voice and email.
Stories of Telemedicine
Skin Diseases among Tribesmen
• A young doctor with a cellphone saw a unique skin problem among the tribesmen
• Using his cellphone camera (with patient consent), he referred the case to Manila
• Dermatologist recognizes the problem as a rare skin disease and asks for more examinations
• Young doctor complies and sends confirmatory images
• Patients got treated appropriately and in a timely manner
Results
Telemedicine is possible in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA)
Telemedicine is fraught with ethical, social, and legal challenges (read: should only be done by trained health professionals and certified personnel). Protocols are important.
Telemedicine is expensive for few sites, but costs go down with more sites
NTSP National Telehealth Service Program
We are now in the process of finalizing a grant from the Government to offer the services on a national scale.
Thank you for listening