By Digna D. Banzon
DAVAO CITY, Nov. 22 (PNA) — The technology that will allow Filipinos to access health care services, the fastest and easiest way is now ready for implementation in the country.
This is developed under the “Smarter Philippines Program: Technology based Inclusive Development,” according to Dr. Alejandro Melchor III, program leader of Smarter Philippines, who disclosed to the Philippines News Agency about the latest in technology innovation during his visit Friday, Nov. 22 in this city.
He said the Smarter Healthcare is delivered through the RxBox.
RxBox is a technology application which aims to use information and communications technology to deliver health care in rural and underserved areas.
Melchor said this will respond well to one of President Aquino’s priority programs of Universal Health Care.
Through the technology, he said, it can provide electronic medical record, graphical user interface. It contains medical devices and sensors that can read vital signs, heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen saturation, fetal heart tones, and maternal uterine contraction.
He said the RxBox helps doctors provide better health care to patients in rural communities.
The RxBox, he added, is a portable innovation funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through the Philippine Council on Health Research and Development (PCHRD). It is developed by researchers at the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute and the University of the Philippines National Institute of Physics from UP Diliman and the National Telehealth Center.
Melchor said the RxBox is part of the bigger program which is the Philippine eHealth Development Plan and we work very closely with the Department of Health.
“And there is no way to do it but the ICT and the symbol of that whole program is the RxBox,” Melchor said.
He said it is a device that looks like a fax machine with LCD and this will go to every barangay because it’s a free service. For a health check up, it can give that service for free, he stressed.
On basic health check up, the person can get the readings from the machine and bring it to a participating hospital where a team of doctors can do diagnosis and provide prescriptions, Melchor said.
“This is just an example of how technology works and that is what we are pushing for in Smarter Philippines,” he added.
He said they were supposed to launch it on October 30 but President Aquino was not here so the Smarter Healthcare system is scheduled to be launched by the first quarter of 2014. (PNA)