NTHC partners with DOST-VI and state university for eHealth expansion

March 24, 2015 1:13 pm | by Henri Joshua Igna, RN | Posted in News

University of the Philippines National Telehealth Center director Dr. Portia Fernandez-Marcelo met with Department of Science and Technology-VI regional director Engr. Rowen R. Gelonga and several officials from the Western Visayas State University to discuss the expansion of RxBox and eHealth in the region.

WVSU is one of the volunteers to be a regional training hub for eHealth. This will turn them into a valuable partner to UP, NTHC and DOST in the implementation, capacity building, and support of Region VI sites that volunteered and will volunteer for RxBox and other eHealth innovations. Present in the meeting are WVSU Medical Center Vice President for research, extension and training, Dr. Ma. Lulu Loyola, Quality Assurance officer Dr. Aretha Gacutan, Community Medicine coordinator Dr. Robert Jonathan Quimpo and Dr. Carl Dwight Demetria, a health informatics practitioner from WVSUMC and a previous emergency medicine staff in the UP Philippine General Hospital.

“DOST shows the way towards partnership considering the consortium to expand the concept, not only of RxBox, but also of eHealth and its value,” Dr. Fernandez-Marcelo explained.

The RxBox, is a biomedical telemedicine device that is able to capture physiologic data with its built-in sensors, save the data in its electronic medical record (CHITS), and transmit it to clinical specialists in the Philippine General Hospital through the internet. Aiming to achieve smarter diagnosis and answer the call for Universal Health Care and Smarter Philippines, the RxBox is now deployed to eight sites in Iloilo, seven of which are from district I, volunteered by Cong. Oscar “Richard” Garin.