DOH to Institutionalize Telehealth Systems in PH
July 17, 2013 12:56 pm | by Aliyah Lou Evangelista | Posted in News
Manila, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) and the University of the Philippines (UP) are in the final stages of public consultation on the Administrative Order on Telehealth which will establish national telehealth services in the country as means to achieve Kalusugan Pangkalahatan.
“The near to final draft of the AO is a testament to the health sector’s commitment to institutionalize telehealth in the country,” said DOH Secretary Enrique Ona in a telehealth symposium organized by the National Telehealth Center in UP Manila last July 3 in Intramuros.
Sec. Ona on his speech during the National Telehealth Symposium held in Intramuros, Manila
In the AO, telehealth systems through the National Telehealth Services (NTS), will prioritize connecting hospital-based medical specialists and patients in remote and isolated areas in the country where access to quality medical specialty care is low. This hopes to reduce unnecessary travels and hospitalizations of patients by connecting them to the medical specialists right away. It will also promote stronger local partnerships both for patients and medical practitioners.
Currently, the National Telehealth Center in UP Manila implements the NTS in at least 250 municipalities, from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi with the joint effort of the Department of Health.
Aside from establishing telehealth systems, included also in the AO’s guiding principles is the provision of a “more timely information exchange to enable prompt action on patient and community needs”.
Information systems on health, such as electronic health records, disease surveillance systems, laboratory information systems, including hospital patient administration systems, is an emerging need of health workers in the Philippines most especially on cases that requires longitudinal care.
“For so long, we have known that the accurate and timely data in our local health centers hold the key to monitoring the performance of our health system. But since time immemorial, government has not systematically implemented in such information systems,” said Sec. Ona.
“Now that we are in the middle of President Aquino’s term, we need to be more decisive with our ICT strategies in health,” added Sec. Ona.
The implementation of the AO supports KP’s strategic instruments “to establish a modern information system that shall provide evidence for policy and program development, and support for immediate and efficient provision of health care and management of province-wide health systems.”
The AO is among the policy efforts in institutionalizing telehealth in the Philippines, a tool seen to bridge an archipelagic country bedecked with geographic and social challenges to health care. House bill 6336 or the Telehealth Bill which aims to regulate telehealth practice in the country was filed by then Cavite Representative Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya in June 2012; this will again be lobbied for this new Congress.
The AO on telehealth conforms to the provisions of the Data Privacy Act of 2012 to protect the privacy of patients.
