Title: University of the Philippines Manila National Telehealth Center
1University of the Philippines Manila National
Telehealth Center
- mHealth in the
- Philippines
- Alvin B. Marcelo, MD
2Goals 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
3State 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
4Opportunity 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
5OneHEALTH Program
eMedicine (Telemedicine) eLearning for
Health eRecords (CHITS)
6Telemedicine in the Philippines
6 years of experience and collaborations with
DOH-DTTBs with research support from DOST
SERVICE
RESEARCH
DOST, 2008
CICT 2004
DTTBs 2008-2011
7How 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.
8TELEMEDICINE How it Works
Internal Medicine
Doctor-to- the-Barrio
Pediatrics
Radiology
NTSP Central
4th, 5th, 6th class LGUs
Dermatology
Doctor-less site
Ophtha
Others
Ethical, legal, and social framework for the
practice of telemedicine
PGH and DOH regional hospitals
9TELEMEDICINE 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.
PGH and DOH regional hospitals
10 11Skin 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
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17Results
- 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
18NTSP 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.
19Thank you for listening
- alvin.marcelo_at_telehealth.ph