University of the Philippines Manila National Telehealth Center

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University of the Philippines Manila National
Telehealth Center

• mHealth in the
• Philippines
• Alvin B. Marcelo, MD

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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

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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

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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

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OneHEALTH Program
eMedicine (Telemedicine) eLearning for
Health eRecords (CHITS)
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Telemedicine 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
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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.

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TELEMEDICINE 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
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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.
PGH and DOH regional hospitals
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• Stories of Telemedicine

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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

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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

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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.

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Thank you for listening

• alvin.marcelo_at_telehealth.ph