Other Hospital Information Systems

Cardiology Information Systems - For the storage and retrieval of Cardiology-centric images.
- Communicates with other information systems to retrieve orders with the patient
demographics and other information and subsequently profiles it against the images and
stored for further distribution, viewing or long-term archive.
Relevant information for cardiologists
Personal notes (history, physical exam)
Signals (electrocardiograms)
Images (echocardiograms, angiograms, CT, MRI)
Reports from investigations/procedures
1970S - AVAILABLE CARDIOLOGY INFORMATION SYSTEM ORIGINATED FROM A MAINFRAME
ENVIRONMENT, THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICS OF WHICH WOULD BE CONSIDERED RIDICULOUS
IN THE PRESENT DAY SETTING.
1980S – MODULAR SYSTEMS BECAME A TREND WHICH EMPHASIZED THE USE OF REAL-TIME
APPLICATIONS AND MINI COMPUTERS
INTERNET BECAME A TURNING POINT IN THE CIS EVOLUTION
CIS NOW - Cardiology information systems nowadays have unique features that enable
remote access and easy retrieval. Some CIS have also attempted to integrate with a Radiology
Information System to create a Cardiovascular Information System that is capable of more
than just storage, particularly involving more administrative processes.
Functionalities
Editing, Viewing and Storing Multi-Modal Cardiology Data - All data relevant to cardiology is
consolidated and managed on a single platform
Remote Access - Cardiology data anywhere you need it
Visualization and Reporting Capabilities - Ease and consistency in reporting
EHR Integration - Offers a more comprehensive view of the patientcare spectrum
Benefits and Features
1. Ease of access while maintaining data security
No need to seek multiple departments, CIS consolidates all cardiology data in one system
2. Flexibility in the workflow
This allows doctors to access cardiology data anywhere they go, offering improved efficiency
in their service
3. Enhanced Comparability
Allows healthcare professionals to make more informed decisions for the benefit of their
patient

Radiology Information Systems

Tracks Radiology image orders in conjunction with:
• PACS – Picture Archiving and Communication Systems: It is a healthcare technology for short
and long term storage, retrieval, management, distribution and presentation of images.
• VNA - Vendor Neutral Archival: In a health information technology context, it is as medical
imaging used by the healthcare professionals that stores images in a standard format and
interface, making medical imaging data accessible through different picture archiving and
communication systems (PACS).
Within a Hospital Information System
Advantages of RIS
1. Better communication with referring doctors
2. Faster payments
3. Improved efficiency
Functions of RIS
Patient Management
Scheduling
Patient Tracking
Results Reporting
Image Tracking
Billing

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM (MMIS) → manage functions like
purchasing, accounting, inventory management, and patient supply charges.
Making sure that services go successfully from one source to an end user
Lessens expenses and ensures adequate cash flow.
FUNCTIONS OF MMIS
PURCHASING - Overview of the Purchasing Process
Purchase Request - Purchase Quotation - Purchase Order - Good Receipt PO- A/p Invoice
Outgoing Payment
WAYS TO MAKE PURCHASE QUOTATIONS:
Single quotations → manually or out of a purchase requisition
Multiple quotations → the purchase quotation wizard could be used
Quotation → created from sales orders by using the procurement confirmation wizard
INVENTORY CONTROL
• Inventory is one of the biggest expenses for most medical institutions (Johnston, 2014)
• Plays an important part in refining the quality of healthcare services → Lives of people are on
the line, as well as because medical costs are increasing.
STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE INVENTORY CONTROL:
Making Sure Shippers Are Accurate
Most medical suppliers use third-party shippers, and the tracking system must ensure that
the correct supplies were loaded at the warehouse
Reveal whether medical supplies have been properly handled in transit.
Alignment With Sales Projections
• Sales projections can be wildly inaccurate → difficult to predict disease and accident patterns,
and patients are notoriously reluctant to switch doctors, hospitals and health insurance
• Prevents waste, frees up cash that would have gone to excess inventory and helps medical
companies identify trends they might not have seen before.
Compliance With Regulations
• A company that routinely fails to serve the best interests of patients can quickly find itself
being investigated, sued or simply shunned by health-care consumers
• Knowing what inventory is on hand and what items are needed can keep a medical company
responsive and prevent closer scrutiny by regulators.
Establishing Buying Cycles
• Instead of responding to needs for supplies and equipment, inventory personnel can
anticipate needs based on previous cycles → can eliminate shortages and overages.
• Tracked to determine whether trends are shifting and need to be adjusted.
INVENTORY ITEM MAINTENANCE
• Upper portion contains master information
• “Item Tab” is used for maintenance of the attributes of an inventory item, such as product
type, item class, item type, etc.
• “Item Availability” form specifies inventory levels across all warehouses.
ITEM INDENTS AND ISSUES
In some cases, items are damaged either upon receiving from the supplier or during the
move from the source to another location
Some suppliers allow returns of the said goods that have indents or the like, with a
guarantee of replacement without any additional payments
Damaged items are moved to another warehouse for them to be monitored.
Re-order level is the minimum quantity of an item that a company has in stock, so when the
stock reached the minimum quantity stated, the item must then be re-ordered
Min/Max inventory ordering method Min” value is representative of a stock level that prompts
a re-order, and the “Max” value is representative of a new targeted stock level that follows the
re-order.
Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) → main difference of these two—Max and Min.
Enquiries - start point of a sale or purchase process
– lead to getting information from a vendor / supplier for the requirement at hand
– establishing a connection with the right vendor / supplier in order to get a quotation, place
the order and receive the requirements.
Quotations – state important information such as price, delivery times, delivery details,
payment terms, taxation etc.
ORDER - stated intention, either spoken or written, to engage in a commercial transaction for
specific products or services
• buyer's point of view → expresses the intention to buy and is called a purchase order
• seller's point of view → intention to sell and is referred to as a sales order
- orders become a contract between the buyer and seller.
Invoice or bill - is a commercial document issued by a seller to the buyer, indicating the
products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller has provided the
buyer
- indicates the sale transaction only.
Documents - need to be created in order to enable a quotation, order, invoice, tax forms etc.
to be used. Statutory requirements to enable smooth transition of the processes involved in
successfully completing a sale / purchase. Documents need to be created in order to enable a
quotation, order, invoice, tax forms etc. to be used.
PURCHASE QUOTATIONS
• document for requesting prices and delivery information from a vendor before the purchase
order.
• complete history of the sourcing process: create a purchase quotation → send the document
to a vendor → when a response from the vendor is received, with a list of prices and delivery
dates, one can enter the information in the purchase quotation
• the information tracked enables one to choose the right vendor for the purchase
• helps in lessening expenses, improving the quality and increasing on-time delivery
• allows one to compare offers in order to pick the appropriate vendor for the purchase
scenario.
PREFERRED VENDORS
1. On-time performance 2. Reasonable costs 3. High quality of products and services Fully
licensed, bonded, and insured 4.Good Business practices.
Purchase Request or Purchase Requisition - is a document that notifies the purchasing
department that certain items or services need to be replenished.
• The document stipulates a timeframe and required quantities for the items
requested. In certain instances, it also contains authorization to acquire assets
PURCHASE ORDERS - a document which records a business transaction between the buyer
and the seller
- buyer issues his order, and upon seller acceptance of the order, a legally binding contract is
created between the parties.
Originator → The person who creates the document, either a purchase request or order
RECEIPT AND INSPECTION OF GOODS:
• Signing for Deliveries – the person receiving the product should sign the receiving
documents provided by the supplier or shipping company.
• Refusing Delivery – departments should refuse to accept shipments if they are unable to
confirm that the order was placed by their department, or if the packing appears sufficiently
damaged to warrant concern.
• Record Retention – Receiving Department takes physical possession and legal ownership of
the shipment.
RECEIPT AND INSPECTION OF GOODS:
1. The products conform to the purchase order requirements and other relevant documents
(for example: correct model number, description, size, type, color, ratings, etc.)
2. The quantity ordered against the quantity shipped or delivered.
3. There is no damage or breakage.
4. The unit of measurement count is correct (e.g. if the unit of measurement on the purchase
order is one dozen, there should be 12 in the package).
5. Delivery documentation (packing list, certifications, etc.) is acceptable.
6. Perishable items are in good condition and expiration dates have not been exceeded.
7. Products are operable or functional.
• Partial Deliveries – Departments should contact the appropriate Purchasing Agent whenever
a purchase is received as a partial delivery without acknowledgement or notification from the
supplier. This information is typically noted on the packing list.
• Tracking of Goods – Goods can be easily tracked /traced when they are managed by Serial or
Batch. Aging of products can also be done if the items are slow moving/stay longer in the
warehouse.
Non-returnable Gate Pass → permanent movement.
Consignment → the vendor or consignor issues materials to the receiver or consignee, and
these materials are stored on the consignee’s premises.
EXPIRED STOCK/INVENTORY - Upon reaching their expiration dates, some goods, such as food
and medicine, can no longer be utilized.
QUARANTINE STOCK/INVENTORY - Inventory is put into quarantine if initially rejected
during → Production, upon completion of an operation, when specified as Move Rejected End
Item to Quarantine.
First In, First Out (FIFO) – Inventory items are sold in the order they are purchased. This is the
most common technique.
Last In, First Out (LIFO) – Last to enter the system are sold first. This is common among non-
perishable items like petroleum, minerals, and metals.
First Expired, First Out (FEFO) – Materials are sold based on date they should be consumed,
regardless of when it was purchased.
Material Management Systems usually allow tax rates to be defined internally via tax codes,
or imported from an external source
– Tax on sales and purchases
– Additional taxes like VAT
– Sales and Use tax as in USA
– Withholding tax like income tax in India
PERIODIC PHYSICAL STOCK TAKING AND ADJUSTMENTS WITH TRACKING
• An inventory count is a process where a business physically counts its entire inventory
– Inventory services provide labor and automation to quickly count inventory and minimize
shutdown time.
– Inventory control system software can speed the physical inventory process.
– A perpetual inventory system tracks the receipt and use of inventory, and calculates the
quantity on hand.
– Cycle counting, an alternative to physical inventory, may be less disruptive
• Barcode and RFID are supplementary technologies that can be used in combination with the
Material Management System in order to have more accurate and less burdensome inventory
counts.

Clinical Data Repositories - Houses a multitude of laboratory results, diagnostic reports, and
various clinical documentations.
- Data are readily searchable and exportable, often because the information is gathered from
standard clinical care procedures (Robertson and Williams, 2016).
- Integrates physician-entered data with data from different existing information systems
including laboratory, radiology, admission, and pharmacy among others
- Location where both clinical data and other data of interest, such as external data sources
and financial data, are assimilated.
Common kinds of available information in the CDR:
Patient Demographics
Patient’s Primary Care Provider
Medication List
Allergies Hospital
Inpatient Visits
Emergency Department Encounters
Outpatient Visits
Immunizations
Diagnoses
Procedures
Laboratory Results
Social History
Vitals
Types of Clinical Data Repository
Study - A database that collects observations for a specific clinical research study.
Electronic Health Record - A database of observations made as a result of direct health care.
Registry - Observations collected and organized for the purpose of studying or guiding
particular outcomes on a defined population. Associated studies are either multiple or long-
term and evolving over time.
Warehouse - A repository that adds levels of integration and quality to the primary (research
or clinical) data of a single institution, to support flexible queries for multiple uses. Is broader
in application than a registry.
Collection - A library of heterogeneous data sets from more organizations than a warehouse or
more sources than a registry. Organized to help users find a particular data set, but not to
query for data combined across data sets.
Federation - A repository distributed across multiple locations, where each location retains
control over access to its own data, and is responsible for making the data comparable with
the data of other locations.
MULTIPLE VIEWS FOR PATIENT MEDICAL RECORD
• Structure of clinical data repositories allows data to be extracted along dimensions such as
time (by year, month, week, or day), location, or diagnosis among many others
• User can view the number of patients with having a certain type of diagnosis, lab result, or
prescription within a year, then a month in that year, and further into a day in that month
• Allows clinicians to trend and chart results Independent of the visits and test panel
organization.
• Provide access to information where it is needed. Creates a “one-stop shopping” environment
• GUI access can be deployed through hand-held devices, bedside computing devices,
computers in physician offices, or computing devices deployed at nursing stations
• Cross-continuum view of information, since they allow information to be gathered and
viewed from sources other than an acute setting.
• The electronic health record may present patient care information as text, tables, graphs,
sounds, images, full-motion video, or signals on an electronic screen, phone, pager, or paper
(Bronzino and Peterson, 2014).
ETHICS, PRIVACY, AND SECURITY
Health informatics ethics - Application of the principles of ethics to the domain of health
informatics.

Autonomy - Defined as either allowing individuals to make their own decisions in response to
a particular societal context, or as the idea that no one human person does not have the
authority nor should have power over another human person.
- Electronic health records (EHR) - must maintain respect for patient autonomy, and this
entails certain restrictions about the access, content, and ownership of records.
Beneficence and Non-maleficence
- Defined as “do good” and “do no harm”, respectively.
•Beneficence relates most significantly with the use of the stored data in the EHR system
• Non-maleficence with data protection.
Principle of Non- maleficence in Health Informatics
• Temporary Outage
• Total System Failure
• Data Security
• Principle of Information-Privacy and Disposition – All have fundamental right to privacy.
• Principle of Openness – The collection, storage, access, use, communication, manipulation,
linkage and disposition of personal data must be disclosed in an appropriate and timely
fashion to the subject or subjects of those data.
• Principle of Security – Data that have been legitimately collected about persons or groups of
persons should be protected by all reasonable and appropriate measures against loss
degradation, unauthorized destruction, access, use, manipulation, linkage, modification or
communication.
• Principle of Access – The subjects of electronic health records have the right of access to
those records and the right to correct them with respect to its accurateness, completeness
and relevance.
• Principle of Legitimate Infringement – The fundamental right of privacy and of control is
conditioned only by the legitimate, appropriate and relevant data-needs of a free, responsible
and democratic society, and by the equal and competing rights of others.
• Principle of the Least Intrusive Alternative – Any infringement of the privacy
rights of a person or group of persons, and of their right of control over data about them, may
only occur in the least intrusive fashion and with a minimum of interference with the rights of
the affected parties.
• Principle of Accountability – Any infringement of the privacy rights of a person or group of
persons, and of the right to control over data about them, must be justified to the latter in
good time and in an appropriate fashion.
Software Ethics
• The software developer has ethical duties and responsibilities to the following stakeholders:
– Society
• Best interest of the society. Developers should be mindful of social impacts of software
systems.
• Includes disclosing any threats or known defects in software
– Institution and employees
• Best interests of the institution and its employees, while balancing their duties to the public,
including being straightforward about personal limitations and qualifications.
– Professional Standards
• Software products should meet expected professional standards.
• Developers should strive to build products that are of high standard, by
thoroughly testing and detailing unresolved issues.
• Privacy - generally applies to individuals and their aversion to eavesdropping.
• Confidentiality - is more closely related to unintended disclosure of information.
• Privacy and confidentiality are widely regarded as rights of all people which merits respect
without need to be earned, argued, or defended.
• Protection of privacy and confidentiality is ultimately advantageous for both individuals and
society.
• Obligations to protect privacy and to keep confidences fall on:
– System designers
– Maintenance personnel
– Administrators and, ultimately, to the:
• Ph
Administrative Safeguards
• Continual risk assessment of your health IT environment
• Continual assessment of the effectiveness of safeguards for electronic health information
• Detailed processes for viewing and administering electronic health information.
• Employee training on the use of health IT to appropriately protect electronic health
information
• Appropriately reporting security breaches (e.g., to those entities required by law or contract)
and ensuring continued health IT operations.
Physical Safeguards
• Office alarm systems
• Locked offices containing computing equipment that store electronic health information
• Security guards
Technical Safeguards
• Securely configured computing equipment (e.g., virus checking, firewalls)
• Certified applications and technologies that store or exchange electronic health information
• Access controls to health IT and electronic health information (e.g, authorized computer
accounts)
• Encryption of electronic health information
• Auditing of health IT operations
• Health IT backup capabilities (e.g., regular backups of electronic health information to
another computer file server)
5 Key Function
• Availability: ensuring that accurate and up-to- date information is available when needed at
appropriate places;
• Accountability: helping to ensure that health care providers are responsible for their access
to and use of information, based on a legitimate need and right to know;
• Perimeter identification: knowing and controlling the boundaries of trusted access to the
information system, both physically and logically;
• Controlling access: enabling access for health care providers only to information essential to
the performance of their jobs and limiting the real or perceived temptation to access
information beyond a legitimate need.
• Comprehensibility and control: ensuring that record owners, data stewards, and patients
understand and have effective control over appropriate aspects of information privacy and
access.
Levels of Security in the Laboratory Information System
Register Patient - Patient record (e.g. ID Number, name, sex, age, location) must be created in
the LIS before tests can be ordered. LIS usually automatically receives these data from a
hospital registration system when a patient is admitted.
Order Tests - Physician orders tests on a patient to be draw as part of the laboratory’s morning
blood collection rounds. The order is entered into the CIS and electronically sent to the LIS.
Collect Sample - Before morning blood collection, the LIS prints a list of all patients who have
to be drawn and the appropriate number of sample bar-code labels for each patient order.
Each barcode has a patient ID, sample contained, and laboratory workstation that can be used
to sort the tube once it reaches the laboratory. Another increasingly popular approach is for
patient caregivers or nurses to collect the blood sample. Immediately prior to collection,
sample barcode labels can be printed (on demand) at the nursing station on an LIS printer or
portable bedside printer.
Receive Sample - When the samples arrive in the laboratory, their status has to be updated in
the LIS from “collected” to “received.” This can be done by scanning each sample container’s
barcode ID into the LIS. Once the sample is “received,” the LIS transmits the test order to the
analyser who will perform the test.
Run Sample - The sample is loaded onto the analyser, and the bar code is read. Having already
received the test order from the LIS, the analyser knows which tests to perform
on the patient. No work list is needed. For manually performed tests, the
technologist prints a work list from the LIS. The work list contains the names of
the patients and the tests ordered on each. Next to each test is a space to record
the result.
Review Results - The analyser produces the results and sends them to the LIS. These results
are only viewable to technologists because they have not been released for general viewing.
The LIS can be programmed to flag certain results—for example, critical values—so the
technologist can easily identify what needs to be repeated or further evaluated.
Release Results - The technologist releases the results. Unflagged results are usually reviewed
and released at the same time. The LIS can also be programmed to automatically review and
release normal results or results that fall within a certain range. The latter approach reduces
the number of tests that a technologist has to review. Upon release, the results are
automatically transmitted to the CIS.
Report Results - The physician can view the results on the CIS screen. Reports are printed
when needed from the LIS.
Data Privacy Act of 2012 - Aim “to protect the fundamental human right of privacy, of
communication while ensuring free flow of information to promote innovation and growth.”
(Republic Act. No. 10173, Ch. 1, Sec. 2).
• Data Privacy Act applies to individuals and legal entities that are in the business of processing
personal information.
• The law applies extraterritorially
• It covers personal information of Filipino citizens regardless of the place of residence.
• The main principles that govern the approach for the Data Privacy act include:
– Transparency;
– Legitimacy of purpose; and
– Proportionality
• Consent is one of the major elements highly-valued by the Data Privacy Act.
• The act provides that consent must be documented and given prior to the collection of all
forms of personal data, and the collection must be declared, specified, and for a legitimate
purpose.
• Furthermore, the subject must be notified about the purpose and extent of data processing,
with details specifying the need for automated processing, profiling, direct marketing, or
sharing.
• These factors ensure that consent is freely-given, specific, and informed.

CHANGE IN HEALTH INFORMATICS

4 TYPES OF CHANGE
• Operational changes can influence the way dynamic business tasks are led, including the
computerization of a particular business segment.
• Strategic changes occur when the business direction, in relation to its vision, mission, and
philosophy, is altered.
•Cultural changes influence the internal organizational culture
•Political changes in human resources occur primarily due to political reasons of varying types
OVERVIEW OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT
• Organizations are driven to change in order to respond to the many pressures they encounter
from their environment.
These pressures usually include:
• Global competition;
• Changes in customer demand;
• Technological advances;
• New legislation
CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS MODELS
Kurt Lewin’s three-step “Unfreeze- Change-Refreeze” model
• Proposed by the universally recognized founder of social psychology in the 1950s.
• Highly relevant today and often used as the basis for many change management strategies.
Proski’s ADKAR® Model
• “ A wareness of the business reasons for change;
•Desire to engage and participate in the change;
•Knowledge about how to change,
•Ability to implement change, and;
•Reinforcement to ensure change sticks”.
Kotter’s 8-Step Model of Change
• Developed by Harvard Business School’s John Kotter
• Focuses on efficient and effective change management in a competitive world.
• Building a strong, collaborative team and a solid strategy;
• Creating effective communication channels;
• Supporting staff empowerment;
• Using a phased and steady approach; and
• Securing the change within an organization’s culture

APPLICATION OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT

•Change management is a series of tools, techniques and processes aimed at successfully
effecting change.
Downey (2008) described common tools and techniques that a change management
practitioner might use during a change initiative, which include:
• Questioning skills to gather information about the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ status of the business
process
• Process mapping for both ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ processes
• Gap analysis
• Business case development
• Project management
• Problem solving
• Requirements elicitation techniques
• Negotiation skills
• It is crucial that progress of the change initiative can be quantified against the objectives set
by the organization.
These KPIs might include:
• Reducing rework by x%
• Improvement in stakeholder satisfaction, for example,
customer/employee surveys
• Reduced time to market
• Enhanced speed of delivery
• The return on investment, that is, the total cost to
implement the initiative versus total savings gained from
the initiative per period.
Key success factors at the leadership level in healthcare organizations
• Setting vision and strategy roadmap
• Formation of governance board to set direction, to prioritize work, and to allocate resources
• Designate an executive sponsor, departmental champions, and program manager
• Define reporting requirements for status reporting in order to keep projects moving forward
• Manage users’ expectations; prepare them for casualties, stress, and general sense of
ambiguity
• Clear and frequent dissemination of information
• Building a strong project leadership team/steering team and other action/functional teams
• Providing education and training on the new changes – workflow and technology
• Forming integrated problem-solving teams to address critical and complex issues
• Empowering staff and end-users to change things, by removing barriers and obstacles
• Adoption - make the change stick by reinforcement, until old traditions are replaced with new
• Frequently celebrate success by honoring contributors to keep the motivation and
momentum
• Monitor and measure key indicators (e.g. using a dashboard to report progress and
benchmarks)
• Involve those affected by the change in decision-making (e.g. choice of computer carts, COW)
• Other creative actions e.g. monthly prizes for high performing teams, provide snacks & drinks
HEALTH INFORMATION PROFESSION
• Health Information Management (HIM) professionals, credentialed with their academic
preparation, work experience, commitment to patient advocacy, and professional code of
ethics, have a specialized skill set that uniquely qualifies them to assume the role both of
privacy official and/or security officials who store, protect, and transmit information in all
media and formats.
• Stewards and guardians of patient health information
• They represent the patient’s interests in matters of privacy and security, information release,
issues and guidelines regarding record access, and general consumer education about
personal health records.
HEALTH INFORMATION PROFESSION
Health Information Management Department Director
Health Information Management Professionals fall into many job categories with varied titles,
including:
• Health Information Management System Manager
• Information Security Officer
• Chief Privacy Officer
• Health Data Analyst
• Health Record Technician Specialist
• Clinical Coding Specialist
• Patient Information Coordinator
• Physician Practice Manager
• Health Information Administrator
• Revenue Cycle Specialist
• Director of Quality Management
• Health Information Manager
• Health Information Technologist/Technician
• The typical day-to-day activities of a Health Information
Management Professional include:
• compiling and analyzing health care data from patients, assisting with the identification of
ways to better utilize health care resources, uncovering public health patterns, improving
patient care, and providing critical information for health care research.
• developing policies to support the delivery of high quality health care by ensuring the
availability of quality information for accurate health care decision making.
TELEMEDICINE IN THE PHILIPPINES
• Common features include 24/7 call centers, diagnosis using images sent via email, medical
certificates, and treatment plan summaries. These kinds of telemedicine centers usually have a
corresponding mobile app to facilitate easier access.
• Some may have video consultation with doctors, patient education, free doctor or nurse
home visits, and delivery of medication and prescriptions in exchange for a fixed monthly
subscription fee.
• Over-the-phone telemedicine providers:
• Medgate
• Lifeline
• Mobile App-based Telemedicine centers:
• MyPocketDoctor
• MyDocNow
• The National Telehealth Center is the leading research unit in the University of the Philippines
responsible for developing cost effective tools and innovations in the realm of information and
communications technology (ICT) for improving health care.
• Department of Science & Technology (DOST)has also begun distributing the breakthrough
“RXBox” telemedicine device developed by engineers and researchers from University of the
Philippines (UP) Diliman and UP Manila.
• RXBox has features that enable teleconsultations via email, video call, or SMS.
• It has sensors that can measure a patient’s blood pressure, temperature, oxygen saturation
rate, pulse rate, and even the electrocardiogram rate, and this information may all be sent to
the specialist doctor via email or SMS, aiding in patient care.
• Afterwards, the RXBox stores and files data into a community health information system
(Ronda, 2016).