Doctors in the U.S. Lend Support to Doctors INQUIRER.net
April 20, 2009
When Dr.Cherrilyn Zablan first stepped into the sleepy, dusty town of Alilem, Ilocos Sur, she couldn’t help but wonder just what she had gotten herself into. As part of the Department of Health’s Doctors to the Barrios program, Dr.Zablan was only one of the many doctors deployed to areas so remote residents have not even seen a doctor for years at a time. “The first few weeks were crazy!” Dr.Zablan says. “There would be days I would see 40-50 patients! I’d treat everything from asthma to diabetes to hypertension.”
Some days though, Dr. Zablan would be faced with an extraordinary case, such as a cardiovascular problem for which she feared she was not equipped to treat, as she was not a cardiovascular specialist. Fortunately, Dr.Zablan could count on her colleagues at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) through a relatively simple but thoroughly effective system called telemedicine. Under The National Telehealth Center at the UP-PGH, this system connects doctors in remote areas to specialists in Manila via laptops, computers and mobile phone telephony. “Our vision is to provide telemedicine to remote, underserved areas,” says Alvin Marcelo, director of the National Telehealth Center based in the University of the Philippines in Manila. “Geographic distance shouldn’t be a limitation for people who need access to basic health services.”
In Dr.Zablan’s case, her laptop, bought by funds coming from the University of the Philippines Medical Alumni Society in America (UPMASA), proved to be essential in transmitting information to her colleagues at the UP-PGH. “There was a patient who couldn’t move at all, whose slightest movement cause him severe pain,” Dr. Zablan recalls. “I suspected spinal cord compression but I still referred him to [a specialist in Manila]. Turns out what he had was Pott’s Disease, which is like Tuberculosis of the bones. With the diagnosis, I was able to treat him with anti-TB medicine and within 2 months the patient was able to move with less difficulty!”
UPMASA members pooled together funds to purchase laptops to support their colleagues in the barrios. By channeling funds through Ayala Foundation USA, an accredited 501c3 organization that generates resources from the U.S. for social development projects in the Philippines, UPMASA was able to provide laptops for those serving in the remotest parts of the Philippines.
The system is relatively simple enough. Patients in remote provinces can undergo consultations with specialists based in Manila through teleconferencing, saving both the patients and the doctors valuable time, energy and resources. Instead of having to travel thousands of kilometers just to see a specialist, these patients can simply see the town doctor, who then transmits the patient’s health information via Internet or mobile phone to the National Telehealth Center based in Manila. The information is then received instantaneously by two nurses who then enlist the help of a specialist at the UP-PGH to diagnose and prescribe the necessary medication to the patients in the barrios.
Adds Dr.H.R. Aujero who was once assigned in Batanes as Field Coordinator for the National Telehealth Center, “The telehealth system also goes beyond mere referrals. We also deal with prevention, so we train the barangay health workers like nurses and midwives on how to deal with poisoning, stroke, tuberculosis and even avian flu. We use video conferencing where the midwives and nurses can ask our specialists their questions, as if it’s a real live demonstration.”
The UP-PGH is only one of the many projects that UPMASA has supported over the years. The group has also supported a community based health program in Pasay, helping upgrade its facilities to create a more efficient and systematic database of electronic health records.
Indeed, with support coming in from donors from the States, more and more of our fellow Filipinos will get better access to quality health care.
