ROXAS, Philippines – SIL-Asia Technical Director, Philip Christian Zuniga and Digital Health Expert, Dr. Raymond Francis Sarmiento shared their digital health expertise during the 10th Health ICT Update by the Department of Health (DOH) – Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS) in Roxas City, Philippines on 12 August 2019.
DOH gathered its regional health ICT personnel to attend the event. With this, Philip and Raymond discussed the importance of standards and interoperability in the context of Universal Health Care. Raymond discussed the steps in selecting the best standards for health ICT in the Philippines. Meanwhile, Philip provided guidance in establishing an interoperability lab and in using different standards that are available to the Philippines.
The event also showed a presentation on how SIL-Asia can provide support to DOH in setting up an interoperability lab. AeHIN and SIL-Asia partners, Prof Chien Yeh Hsu and Hsui An Lee, both from the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science (NTUNHS) also attended the event to share their experiences in Taiwan eHealth. Part of their presentation is discussing the initiative on building their own interoperability – research lab in Taiwan with SIL-Asia’s guidance.
As an action plan from the workshop, DOH-KMITS and SIL-Asia endeavor to further collaborate, particularly in testing and validation. DOH is strongly considering the setting up of an interoperability lab based in KMITS. The goal of the proposed lab is to contribute to the achievement of the Universal Health Care Law.
The Regional Interoperability Workshop organized by AeHIN at the sidelines of the Global Health Research Forum last August 2015 gave birth to the concept of Standards and Interoperability Lab – Asia. The regional lab aims to serve as a template of labs in each country that will later form into the Community of Interoperability Labs (COIL).
