The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) will sign a memorandum of understanding with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) this month to further strengthen tuberculosis (TB) research in the country.

The DOST-PCHR is also eyeing for the possible establishment of the Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis (RePORT) Consortium here.

The RePORT Consortium is an initiative to streamline TB research globally by providing a platform for standardized data management.

Countries such as India, Brazil, and Indonesia have already established this initiative.

According to Peter Kim, deputy director, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, US NIH, the RePORT Consortium establishes a formal platform for multicultural research partnerships where researchers perform same data collection and analysis methods to easily validate TB research data.

A tool for data harmonization is vital in linking researchers facilitate merging and compatibility of TB data.

DOST has also signified its full support in TB mitigation through research. “Research collaborations like RePORT would enable local researchers to upgrade their research capacities and contribute to the fight against tuberculosis,” said DOST Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara.

For his part, PCHRD Director Jaime Montoya also said the Council will always be in coordination with partners in health to continuously provide research opportunities to prevent and control the prevalence of TB and other diseases.

Meanwhile, a business meeting was attended by the PCHRD and US NIH last month to discuss the research opportunities once the RePORT Consortium is established in the Philippines.

Stakeholders from the academe, hospitals, national government agencies, TB research societies also participated in the discussion.(PNA)