Monday, December 17, 2007 Sultan Kudarat, Sulu to automate rural health systems By Allen V. Estabillo
TWO provinces in Mindanao are set to automate their rural health systems through the installation of an emerging open source software for health centers developed by the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila.
Dr. Alvin Marcelo, project manager of the Community Health Information Tracking System or Chits Project of UP Manila's National Telehealth Center, said the provinces of Sulu in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) and Sultan Kudarat in Southwestern Mindanao have signified interest to deploy Chits in their areas.
"We scheduled Sulu for February and Sultan Kudarat for March (next year)," Marcelo said at the sidelines of the first OpenHubs Conference in Alabel, Sarangani last week.
Chits is an extensible, modular, open source information system for rural health units developed by Dr. Herman Tolentino and his team at the UP Manila.
The software "collects existing routine health data from vertical programs in the Field Health Service Information System (FHSIS) and integrates them into a unified, comprehensive computerized information system," the CHITS website said.
"Through Chits, community-based health information is made available not only to public health agencies requiring community level information but also to the community itself which generates the information. It enables the community to use this information for local decision-making and health planning," it added.
Marcelo said Chits essentially addresses concerns on making health care affordable and accessible to residents, especially those in the rural areas.
"The idea is that, through the technologies available, we may be able to access to places where there are no doctors and be able deliver various health services," he said.
Marcelo said the software will help build up an accurate and accessible electronic database for rural health centers.
He said its information system will help rural centers effectively manage their inventory of medicines, and eventually help track down the quality of care to patients.
Marcelo cited past cases of rural health units accumulating huge losses in medicine purchases due to inaccurate databases.
