THE development of software application for human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/Aids) data management is seen as a boost to local information and communication technology (ICT) industry, particularly in the field of data analytics.
Lawyer Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, executive director of Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT), said the project will greatly enhance the creation of a more responsive and holistic set of strategies to address the lack of important data in the fight against HIV/Aids.
The Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City has partnered with a local software developer TAS Tradesoft Corp. in utilizing the Hact Bacolod Application.
It is geared toward collecting data to be used for research and analysis, patient care and prioritization of healthcare provider resources.
CLMMRH is the pilot medical institution in the country to use the application for HIV/Aids functionalities, which will facilitate greater knowledge management to improve the efficiency of case management and monitoring of the patients from the inception of the infection toward full care administration.
Batapa-Sigue said that data analytics today is considered an effective tool to understand and provide solutions to real-world problems.
“The young men and women of TAS Tradesoft have done the world a big favor by looking at the problem of HIV/Aids in a more objective and systematic manner,” Batapa-Sigue said.
She added that it affords persons living with HIV/Aids the respect, convenience, and privacy of health information and at the same, provide aggregated data to medical practitioners in the hope of developing more effective interventions.
TAS Tradesoft is the first Bacolod-based software developer accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).
The company is into developing applications in finance and medical fields as well as mobile games, among others.
Its chief operations officer John Dave Dueñas had earlier said they wanted to assist the medical industry through the application by reducing medical errors, serving as arena of information, sharing within the practice and security mechanism, and ensuring safety of patients.
For BNEFIT, Batapa-Sigue said the intelligent data gathering system is the most important value of the project and something that might just be the greatest adversary of HIV/Aids, now considered as an emerging infectious disease in the country.
“The initiative also proves the capabilities of our local software developers,” she added.