The document summarizes the Philippines' actions taken to promote an enabling environment for information and communication technologies in the health sector over the past two decades. Nearly half of the listed actions have been implemented and will be reviewed and continued in the next two years. A priority is developing a framework to provide clear strategies to achieve eHealth goals and objectives. Insufficient funds for the health sector remain a significant challenge. All listed actions to extend access to health information and build human resource capacity through education have been introduced and will continue to be reviewed. Updating and maintaining databases is mentioned as one of the most significant ongoing challenges.

1. Philippines
REGION
Enabling environment – policies and strategies to support the information society
The Philippines reports that almost half of the listed actions to promote
PACIFIC
National information
policy or strategy RC
an enabling environment for information and communication
National ePolicy technologies (ICT) in the health sector have been implemented and
or eStrategy RC
will be reviewed and continued over the next two years. The rest of
National eHealth the listed actions should be introduced by 2008. The national ICT
policy or strategy S
policy is described as the most important action taken in this eld. To
WESTERN
Procurement policies
or strategies S date, ICT projects are often funded by grants from donor agencies or
from special government budgets. Including these projects within the
Public funding RC regular government budget is considered a signi cant challenge. A
Future action
priority activity is to develop a model framework that provides clear
Private funding RC
strategies and direction to achieve desired goals and objectives in the
WHO
Public-private
RC
eHealth domain.
partnerships
eHealth standards S
Citizen protection S
Equity S
Multilingualism and
cultural diversity S
< 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 >
Year
Figure 1. Enabling environment for ICT in the health sector: actions
taken or planned within 2 years and their e ectiveness rating
Infrastructure – access to information and communication technologies
There are plans to implement a national plan for the development of ICT National ICT in health
development plan S
in health and a national policy to reduce the costs of ICT infrastructure
Future action
for the health sector by 2008. The Philippines indicates that since Policy on a ordability
of infrastructure S
1985 it works with intersectoral and nongovernmental partners to
promote infrastructure development. This initiative will be reviewed Intersectoral and
nongovernmental RC
FOR eHEALTH
and continued over the next two years. The Multipurpose Community cooperation
< 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 >
Telecenter (MCT) (http://www.barangayconnect.ph), which provides Year
access to community information, including selected transcriptions in
Figure 2. ICT infrastructure development for the health sector:
the local dialect, and the use of cellular infrastructure to provide health actions taken or planned within 2 years and their e ectiveness rating
information are highlighted by the Philippines as a signi cant initiative.
The most important initiatives are described as the introduction of the Internet by PHNet; the Philippine Research, Education
and Government Information Network (PREGINET), which advances the development of next-generation network technologies,
applications and services to make these technologies accessible and a ordable to user communities; and the Short Messaging
FOUNDATIONS
System (SMS) with 25 million cellular service subscribers. The Department of Health has initiated a programme for answering health
queries by SMS from the general public. Insu cient funds for the health sector remain a signi cant challenge.
Cultural and linguistic diversity, and cultural identity
The listed actions have been introduced and will be reviewed and
Future action
Multilingual projects RC continued. The Philippines notes the development of the Community
Translation and Health Information Tracking System (CHITS), which is designed for
cultural adaptation RC
government health centres to track and monitor patients. Of particular
BUILDING
< 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 > importance is the embedded localization module that enables
Year
translation into local languages. The University of the Philippines has a
Figure 3. Electronic multicultural health content: actions taken or project translating terms used in Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) into
planned within 2 years and their e ectiveness rating
Filipino, the national language. The development of multilingual content
for advocacy poses a signi cant challenge, as there are ve major languages and more than one hundred dialects in the country.
316 GOe © World Health Organization 2006

2. Population (000s) 80 166 OECD country No Main telephone lines* 4.16
indicators
Country
GLOBAL
GDP per capita (Int $) 5 490 World Bank category 3 Internet users* 5.32
Total health expenditure (% of GDP) 3.2 ICT Di usion Index 0.294 Mobile phone subscribers* 39.85
Content – access to information and knowledge
All of the services listed to extend access to the community have been
OBSERVATORY
Access to international
journals RC
introduced and are predicted to continue over the next two years.
Access to national Important actions are described to be the creation of the eHealth
Future action
journals RC
portal (1995) as a virtual community for Philippine health research,
National open archive health care delivery, and health science and technology development;
or repository policies RC
the Department of Health web site (1997) providing a source of health
Health information
for the general public RC information for the general public; the development of the Philippine
< 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 > eLibrary (2004), which links multidisciplinary libraries; and the online
Year public access catalogue (OPAC) (1991) of medical and health libraries.
FOR eHEALTH
Figure 4. Online access to health content: actions taken or planned The Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN)
within 2 years and their e ectiveness rating (http://www.herdin.ph) (1985), a specialized network of documentation
and information centres engaged in health research and development
activities with a bibliographic information retrieval system for Philippine health research is also highlighted as an e ective action in
this eld. The Philippines highlights the need for translation of health information to local languages. The updating and maintenance
of databases are mentioned among the most signi cant challenges.
Capacity – human resources knowledge and skills
All of the educational programmes listed in this area have been Undergraduate
introduced. The Philippines reports these actions to have been or postgraduate
training on ICT
RC
Future action
slightly e ective. They will be reviewed and continued. The recently Continuing
RC
implemented telementoring and telehealth project, Buddy Works, education on ICT
will enable access to health knowledge and expertise for those in eLearning in
health sciences RC
geographically remote areas. The Department of Health provides
< 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 >
continuing ICT training for health professionals; the courses ranging Year
from introductory courses to programming, as well as Internet and
Figure 5. ICT capacity in the health sector: actions taken or planned
specialized Geographical Information Systems instruction. The within 2 years and their e ectiveness rating
migration of locally-trained health professionals, especially nurses with
training in ICT for health, to positions abroad is reported as the most
signi cant challenge in this area.
eHealth tools and eHealth services
Electronic Health Records (eHR)
Patient Information Systems (PIS)
Hospital Information Systems (HIS) Advice on national needs assessments for eHealth
General Practitioner Information Systems (GPIS) Advice on eHealth policy and strategy
National electronic registries Advice on methods for M&E of eHealth services
National drug registries Information on e ective/best eHealth practices
Directories of health-care professionals and institutions Advice on eHealth norms and standards
Decision Support Systems (DSS) Information on trends and developments in eHealth
Telehealth Advice on eLearning programmes
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Advice on human resources development for eHealth
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Usefulness Usefulness
Figure 6. Preferred generic eHealth tools to be provided by WHO Figure 7. Preferred eHealth services to be provided by WHO
All of the listed eHealth tools are rated as extremely useful if the World Health Organization could o er these as generic prototypes
PHILIPPINES
for adaptation to the Philippines. The speci ed eHealth services are also considered extremely useful.
E ectiveness Future action Usefulness
Extremely e ective C To be continued 5 Extremely useful
Very e ective RC To be reviewed & continued 4 Very useful
Legend
Moderately e ective S To be started 3 Moderately useful
Slightly e ective P To be stopped 2 Slightly useful
Not e ective U Undecided 1 Not useful
Unknown e ectiveness 0 No data / No action 0 No data
Start date unknown
No data * per 100 inhabitants
© World Health Organization 2006 For more information see Explanatory notes GOe 317
For electronic version see http://www.who.int/GOe