University of the Philippines Manila National Telehealth Center

mHealth in the

Philippines

Alvin B. Marcelo, MD

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

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

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”

NATIONAL TELEHEALTH CENTERUniversity of the Philippines Manila

Quality health care through ICT...

OneHEALTH Program

eMedicine (Telemedicine)

eLearning for Health

eRecords (CHITS)

Telemedicine in the Philippines

CICT 2004

SERVICERESEARCH

6 years of experience and collaborations with DOH-DTTBs

with research support from DOST

DOST, 2008 DTTBs 2008-2011

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.

Doctor-to-the-Barrio

Doctor-lesssite

NTSPCentral

Internal Medicine

Ophtha

Dermatology

Radiology

Pediatrics

Others

PGH and DOH regional hospitals

4th, 5th, 6th class LGUs

TELEMEDICINE How it Works

*** Ethical, legal, and social framework for the practice of telemedicine

PGH and DOH regional hospitals

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.

Stories of Telemedicine

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

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

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.

Thank you for listening

alvin.marcelo@telehealth.ph