Ehealth and RxBox presents at the 8th Philippine National Health Research System Week

August 11, 2014 5:16 pm | by Henri Joshua Igna, RN | Posted in News

Paving “the road to Global Forum for Research and Innovation for Health 2015”, Central Visayas Consortium for Health Research and Development (CVCHRD) will be hosting this year’s 8th Philippine National Health Research System (PNHRS) Week at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Cebu City.

Running from August 12 to 14, 2014, the celebration will be focusing on the role of health research in disaster mitigation and emergency health management with the theme, “Research and Innovation in Health for Disaster and Emergency Health Management”. On August 13 (Wednesday), Dr. Kristine Mae P. Magtubo, project manager of RxBox, will be presenting the experiences of using telehealth and RxBox in Leyte and Bohol. The presentation is part of the plenary session on ICT tools for disaster management – eHealth and Social Media.

RxBox, a biomedical telemedicine device, with an electronic medical record (CHITS – Community Health Information Tracking System), under the National Telehealth Service Program, helps improve LGU disaster resilience by improving the storage and back-up of patient records and other health data. This has been proven during the onslaught of typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) November last year when one of the RxBox sites in Mayorga Leyte has been destroyed. Because they were able to save their CHITS server, all the patient records in RHU Mayorga were saved. Three months after the typhoon, RHU Mayorga was able to return to paperless service delivery through RxBox and CHITS.

Similarly, Tubigon, Bohol became the first town in Bohol, and in the whole Central Visayas region to receive the RxBox. As part of the efforts of the Department of Science and Technology in reestablishing the disaster-stricken areas, the DOST-Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) collaborated with NTHC in providing connectivity via TV White Space or “Super Wi-Fi”, helping RHU Tubigon to maximize the use of RxBox through telemedicine (See Article HERE: “RxBox enters Bohol with “Super WiFi””). Bohol is one of the hard-hit areas of the earthquake last October 2013, also struck by typhoon Haiyan just 3 weeks after.

To view the program of activities for the PNHRS week, click HERE.