Katherine M Panganiban, MD, Jeffrey Domino. St. Luke’s Medical Center – Quezon City, Philippines
The Philippines is one of the world’s largest archipelago nations situated in the southeast of mainland Asia in the western rim of the Pacific Ocean, with diversified population and resources, and is still classified as a developing country despite its economic growth. The archipelagic topography of our country presents a challenge in communications, infrastructure development and service delivery, including healthcare and education. The objectives of this paper/ presentation are: (1) to present the current status of telemedicine in our institution, St. Luke’s Medical Center, how we have grown and established the First Telemedicine Network of the Philippines and (2) to increase social awareness in our country on how Telemedicine could make that big of an impact on our healthcare system and education.
The Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery Center (MIRSC), in collaboration with the Institute of Surgery, St. Luke’s Medical Center – Quezon City (SLMC-QC), Philippines, Kyushu University, Fukuoka Japan, the Telemedicine Development Center of Asia (TEMDEC) and Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), has initiated the development of a nationwide telemedicine network community in our country. Telemedicine Network of the Philippines (TNP) was established and held its first teleconference network meeting last May 18, 2016. This network is the first to simultaneously connect hospitals across the country utilizing the network server established by the DOST. With MIRSC, SLMC-QC, initiating and leading this network, we were able to connect to six other hospitals/ training institutions (Veteran’s Memorial Medical Center, National Kidney & Transplant Institute, University of Cebu Hospital, Baguio General Hospital, University of the Philippines – Manila / Philippine General Hospital and Davao Doctors Hospital). Another milestone in Philippine Telemedicine was achieved last July 9, 2016 when the First Philippine Telemedicine Network Symposium was held in our institution, where didactics, tutorial workshops, demonstration of the essential needs and discussion of common technological issues in telemedicine were addressed.
TNP aims to provide a continuous collaborative medical education, and eventually, to utilize technology in the future as a way to reach out to our patients.
Presented at the SAGES 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
Abstract ID: 80860
Program Number: P410
Presentation Session: Poster (Non CME)
Presentation Type: Poster
