Archive for September, 2010

FOSS for Health troops to House of Representatives

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Quezon City, Philippines — The University of the Philippines National Telehealth Center (UPM-NThC) forged its advocacy on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) during the 3rd House of Representatives FOSS week at the Batasan Pambansa from September 13 to 16, 2010.

The weeklong celebration dubbed as “FOSS on the GO!” coincided with the campaign of the congressional office of Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy A. Casiño on the use of FOSS in the country. “Since 2006, we have been pushing for FOSS,” expressed Rep. Casiño, who is the principal author of House Bill 1011 or the “Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) Act of 2010.” HB 1011 was filed anew by Rep. Casiño last July 7, 2010 after it initially surfaced in 2006.

“We hope to see and wish to find that we are not tied down to proprietary softwares,” reiterated Rep. Sigrfrido R. Tinga, Chairperson of the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology. “We should rally behind technology that will liberate us which will put that technology into the hands of the poorest of the Filipino.”

Sec. Ivan John E. Uy of the Commission on ICT (CICT) was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremonies of the year-long advocacy and information dissemination campaign of FOSS. “The CICT has made use of FOSS in our initiatives such as the eLGU project, promotion on the use of eSkwela, education opportunities, and computer literacy.” Sec. Uy mentioned.

UPM-NThC showcased its homegrown FOSS application for health such as the Community Health Information Tracking System (CHITS), an electronic medical record system for government health centers.

Prof. Ariel S. Betan of the UPM-NThC discussed during the September 15 round-table discussion on the question whether the Philippine government should go for FOSS: “Why not? We are actually far behind other countries and a lot of EU members are now migrating on the use of FOSS. Government should be proactive.”

The 3rd FOSS week celebration also introduced FOSS products and services by institutions and organizations such as Mozilla Foundation, Internation Open Source Network (IOSN), 98 Labs, Touch Solutions, Dsource, National Computer Center (NCC), and ePLDT.

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Pasay City adds two more health centers running on CHITS

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Pasay City, Philippines – Two health centers, San Pablo and MIA, has joined the list of CHITS-installed health centers in this city that is now running on an electronic health record system that is the Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS.

The automation of the two health centers was a collaboration between the Center for Health Development-Metro Manila (CHD-MM) of the Department of Health (DOH), University of the Philippines Manila – National Telehealth Center (UPM-NThC), and the Pasay City Health Office. The 4 workstations for each health facility were provided by the City Health Office while the training and other expenses were shouldered by the CHD-MM in cooperation with the UPM-NThC.

With the installation of CHITS in San Pablo and MIA, this brings to 10 out of 14 health centers in Pasay City that are now enjoying the benefits of having an electronic health record system for their constituents.

“On our first test run last August 11, we were able to admit 42 patients and 22 of them were general consults,” said San Pablo physician-in-charge Dr. Carl Antonio. “Mas mabilis and okay ang CHITS (It was faster and okay using CHITS).”

Hardware and software installation; and CHITS training in San Pablo and MIA were simultaneously conducted last August 2010 with the help of the City Health Office led by Dr. Marie Irene R. Sy (Medical Officer V), Rosendo Pantino (PHN II), Josie Tresvalles (PHN I), Rosario Panesa (PHN I) and UPM-NThC’s CHITS Coordinator Noel Bañez.

“Sa umpisa, may resistance pero may willingness to follow (At first there was resistance in using CHITS but there was willingness to follow),” expressed MIA’s Public Health Nurse Rutchell Dimapilis. Nakita din namin ‘yung convenience of the system (We saw the convenience of the system),” added Dr. Leslie Joy Tolentino of MIA Health Center on the use of CHITS in their health facility.

In May 2010, Pasay City had M. Dela Cruz and Kalayaan Health Centers join the roster of CHITS-installed health facilities in their city.

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CHITS featured in Municipal Mayors Forum

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Mandaluyong City, Philippines – The Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS, an e-Gov application for government health centers, was showcased in the 2nd Forum on E-Governance for Municipal Development (e-Gov4MD) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Headquarters last September 6-7, 2010.

The two-day forum gathered more than 300 delegates of local government executives, planners, treasurers from 60 municipalities as well as CIOs, IT companies and professionals in the country. The theme echoed on “Achieving Good Governance through ICT-Enabled Public Administration.”

University of the Philippines Manila – National Telehealth Center’s Director Dr. Alvin B. Marcelo presented the electronic health record system for government health centers that is CHITS on the second day of the forum as part of the 3 e-Gov applications featured in the panel discussion. He discussed the benefits of CHITS to local government units and how it will also serve as a platform for telemedicine and e-Learning. The other two systems featured were the Local Governance Performance Management System by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) which aimed at local government service monitoring, and the Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) which focused on poverty assessment.

At the end of the panel discussion, forum host Mayor Miguel C. Rivilla of Paniqui, Tarlac expressed, “My municipality of Paniqui, Tarlac will be forever grateful to Dr. Marcelo for having us chosen as one of the sites for CHITS.” He referred to a project launch of CHITS in the province of Tarlac last June 2010.

The e-Gov4MD Forum and General Assembly also witnessed the Aquino administration’s effort to invest in ICT as echoed by Vice-President Jejomar C. Binay who closed the forum: “We should make e-Governance as the cornerstone to empower our people.” He also expressed his hope that “civil societies to build bridges between public-private partnerships to be catalysts of change and the engine of national development and growth.”

E-Governance for Municipal Development (e-Gov4MD) was organized by the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), Mayor’s Development Center (MDC), Chief Information Officers Forum (CIOF), and the Chief Information Officers Forum Foundation (CIOFF), and was supported by the Asian Development Bank.

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