Also known as House Bill (HB) 6336, Telehealth Act of 2012 aims to strengthen Health Secretary Enrique Ona’s commitment to provide telehealth services to at least 606 poorest municipalities in the Philippines.
The bill “would benefit patients and medical professionals who can now use Internet technology to tap medical expertise,” Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, the bill’s author, said in a press statement.
Abaya, who supports efforts in providing medical expertise, especially in isolated and medically underserved communities, initiated a similar bill in 2009 when he was still co-chairman of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering.
He said the bill will help in aligning plans “for attaining efficiency by using ICT [information and communication technology] in all aspects of health care,” one of the policy directions described in Ona’s Universal Health Care agenda.
Both the proposed National Telehealth Act of 2009 and the Telehealth Act of 2012 were founded from the National Telehealth Center’s (NTHC) 14 years of experience in telehealth.
HB 6336 will spearhead the creation of the National Telehealth Board, which will be responsible for the crafting of policies and guidelines on ethical and safe practice of telehealth in the Philippines.
A corresponding National Telehealth Reference Center will be created to implement the policies passed by the board.
NTHC, based at the National Institutes of Health of the University of the Philippines Manila, is a leading research unit committed to improve health care through ICT.
It has been providing telereferrals to doctors in remote communities, conducting educational sessions for local health workers through videoconferencing and implementing the Community Health Information Tracking System, the award-winning electronic medical record for government health facilities for more than a decade.
NTHC, with the support of Abaya, is advocating support for the bill by generating discussion both in Congress and in the health-care sector.
As part of the National Telehealth Center’s commitment to improve health care through the use of ICT, NTHC is active in mainstreaming telehealth discussions among policy-makers in the aim to improve the practice in the field.
In a forum held recently at the University of the Philippines Manila, Dr. Gene Nisperos, NTHC coordinator for the telehealth-bill advocacy, said the use of telehealth is slow.
However, he said the growing use of ICT could push for its bigger deployment in the country.
Nisperos said the various clinics and hospitals offering teleconsultations and using electronic devices in managing the patients’ medical records prove how ICT is revolutionizing activities for patient care.
“The Philippines needs to accelerate the implementation of a sound telehealth policy to rationalize the practice and deliver more quality service to the majority of Filipinos,” said Nisperos in a statement.
Nisperos said the proposed law has to deal with the lack of clear legal and social guidelines to telehealth practice, ensure patient safety and preserve patient-information confidentiality.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Rizal Raoul Reyes
Quelle/Source: Business Mirror, 30.06.2012
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