... as growing adoption seen to hasten SDG achievement

MANILA, Philippines — Encouraging more Filipinos to take advantage of telemedicine or digital health services can help the Philippines achieve one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In a recent webinar organized by state-run think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the Department of Health (DOH) said telemedicine has the potential to reduce the actual cost of health services.

DOH director Enrique Tayag said the Philippines can leverage digital health to achieve its objectives under SDG 3 which is to “ensure health and well-being for all at every stage of life.”

“Telemedicine is a game changer in this pandemic. It is slowly getting traction in many hospitals. Even doctors are into telemedicine now,” Tayag said.

The SDGs are 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all” by 2030.

Last year was supposed to be the start of a decade of action to accelerate progress on the SDGs, but the pandemic threatened prospects for achieving the goal.

Of the 17 SDGs, the Philippines has only achieved SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production.Unfortunately, SDG 3 is still among the major challenges that the Philippines has yet to address alongside hunger, innovation and infrastructure, inequalities, and peace and justice.

Tayag said digital health has yet to gain adequate acceptance across different people and cultures, even among Filipinos

“The human resource for digital health remains unsustainable because of the rapid changes in technology. Health workers also fear that they might be replaced by artificial intelligence,” Tayag said.

As the government boosts investments in information and technology, Tayag emphasized that enough resources should be placed on relevant innovations to build the capacity of health workers for remote consultation.

He also said there is a need to fully adopt a digitized medical recording system in the country. Currently, the electronic medical records system in the country is a hybrid one.

“The e-claims of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. are available because of the electronic medical records system. For nearly a decade now, the DOH has managed to ensure that at least 80 percent of the public health sector has a functional electronic medical records system,” Tayag said.

The health official also called on the government to adopt laws for the implementation of digital health as provided by the Universal Health Care Act.