In its bid to bring the gains of science, technology, and innovation (STI) closer to the people to reduce demographic inequality, create opportunities for businesses and employment, and expand the potential for growth in the countryside, the Department of Science and Technology Regional Office No. IX (DOST-IX) will be conducting “Science for the People (SFTP)” Festivals in key locations in the region.
SFTP is a consolidated effort of DOST to bring S&T products and services to the countryside. This fiesta-inspired event aims to, among others: (1) reach and serve rural community folks, especially in places where regular access to government services is quite challenging; (2) introduce and demonstrate the beneficial applications of DOST technologies, programs, and services, which are all geared toward improving the quality of life in the region; and (3) promote collaborative efforts towards meaningful development through strengthening partnerships between DOST, other line government agencies, local government units (LGUs), private businesses, non-government organizations (NGOs), and local communities.
Through the SFTP Festivals, communities are set to benefit from the opportunities to be created by technology bazaars and exhibits, technology business fora, technology trainings, and nutri-feeding activities, among many other things.
For the first leg of its SFTP festival, DOST-IX has chosen the Municipality of Titay as its venue. Located at the western part of the Zamboanga Peninsula (ZamPen), Titay is a humble yet thriving municipality that acts as the gateway for travelers headed for Zamboanga del Norte and the other provinces of ZamPen. Given its inland location and distance from the main cities, it is often found on the wanting side of science and its advancements. Thus, DOST-IX believes that it is the most viable setting for its first Science for the People Festival, which will be held at the Titay Municipal Hall on 22-24 May 2017.
Among the highlights of the 1st SFTP Festival include nutri-feeding program for children, sharing of products of DOST-SETUP-assisted firms to senior citizens, and a tree planting activity.
DOST-IX is inviting the public to witness and take part in this event. Everyone is encouraged to view the various technologies that will be showcased, which include those related to disaster risk reduction and management, improvement and/or development of business enterprises, education, and health. Admission to all of the activities during the Science for the People festival is FREE. (Bon Padayhag, DOST IX Press Release)
The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) in cooperation with the Health Research and Development Consortium Region IV-A (HRDCR IV-A) conducted a seminar-workshop entitled “Workshop on Framework for Disaster Research Phase I: Capacity Enhancement on Disaster Research in Health” last April 25-26, 2017 at the Acacia Hotel, Alabang. The activity aimed to develop the capacity to generate, translate, and utilize research findings for disaster risk reduction policies, programs and services using standard concepts, methods and frameworks. The two-day seminar-workshop featured talks on disaster risk-reduction, exercises, workshops and mentoring sessions, plenaries and presentations. This was conducted as a follow through action to the key messages from the disaster risk reduction (DRR) sessions at the 2015 Global Forum on Research and Innovation for Health 2015. Dr. Ofelia Saniel, Dr. Jessie Manuta, Dr. Juan Pablo Nanagas and Dr Carlos Primero Gundran served as the resource persons. A total of 29 participants attended the said workshop and all left armed with enhanced capacity in doing disaster health related research. They were also able to write a research proposal for possible funding of PCHRD.
"Disaster is not forever… building back better"… some phrases to live by from Dr. Saniel and Dr. Manuta during the workshop.
Health - and all issues that accompany it - is viewed quite differently from the provincial perspective. To combat a persistent cough, a person from the big city would most likely reach for a pharmacy grade Guaifenesin; a person from the far provinces however, would instead opt for a herbal preparation proven effective through generations of use.
Following this idea, one may begin to identify the many aspects that affect the chemical vs concoction decision-making process in the primary health care, such as accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability of the cure.
Those aspects however just barely scratch the surface. Should a cheaper variant of the pharmacy cure be developed for the provinces or should a pharmacy drug be developed based on the provincial herbal mixtures? The rise of these questions merits the conduct of research for the development of solutions applicable for both the city and the provincial scene.
Recently, agencies behind the development of the Regional Unified Health Research Agenda (RUHRA) began their provincial consultations to identify the health issues, needs, and concerns of provinces in region IX for 2017 to 2022.
On April 25, local health units in Zamboanga Sibugay gathered to discuss the province's practices with the Departmen of Health (DOH-IX), the Zamboanga Consortium for Health Research and Development (ZCHRD) and the Department of Science and Technology IX (DOST-IX).
The involved agencies focused on Identifying issues and concerns in health systems like governance, financing, workforce, the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT), vulnerabilities and high-risk groups, and the overall health status of the province.
These consultations are scheduled to carry on through Zamboanga City (April 27-28), Zamboanga del Sur (May 2-3), Zamboanga del Norte (May 9-10), and culminate with a regional consultation (May 15-16), which will amalgamate all issues and concerns from the different provinces.
These issues and concerns will be translated into researchable areas / topics, which are then to be combined the RUHRA from other regions around the country, and will be brought up to the national level for a consolidated National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA). (Bon Padayhag, DOST IX Press Release)
As part of the methodology for developing the National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA), the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD), through its partner organizations,conducted a two day regional consultation in region 1 entitled "Organizing Consultative Workshop Towards the Development of the Philippine National Health Research System's Regional Unified Health Research Agenda (RUHRA) 2017-2022.The consultation was held on May 23-24, 2017 at the Northview Hotel, Brgy. Nalbo Laoag City,Ilocos Norte facilitated by the Healthdev Institute.
This consultation was part of the larger effort in developing the NUHRA 2017-2022, which specifies the areas for health research that need to be studied.The regional consultation served as the venue for all relevant stakeholders to create the Regional Unified Research Agenda (RUHRA) priorities.
Participants who attended the said consultation were member and non-member institutions of the Region 1 Health Research and Development Consortium (R1HRDC) to wit: National Commission of Indigenous People (NCIP), Pangasinan Medical Society (PMS), Panpacific University North Philippines (PUNP), Northern Christian College (NCC),Northwestern University (NWU),Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU), Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU),Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC), Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation Inc.(VMUF), Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center (ITRMC),Commission on Higher Education (CHED),Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Health (DOH),Philippine Information Agency (PIA),Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU),National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), University of Northern Philippines (UNP) and Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC).
Speakers during the regional consultation were Dr. Miguel Antonio Salazar and Mr. Teddy S. Dizon bothe from the Alliance for Improving Health Outcomes (AIHO) Inc. and Mr. Paul Ernest De Leon from PCHRD-Research and Development Management Division. On the 1st day, topics discussed were: Introduction to the PNHRS and the NUHRA,Orientation to the NUHRA and RUHRA agenda setting priorities,Inputs:Technical Papers and Regional Situationer,Brainstorming session and plenary.On the 2nd day,topics were: Setting Criteria for Prioritization,Prioritization Exercise,RUHRA 2017-2022:Results of Prioritization,Planning for RUHRA dissemination,funding monitoring and Evaluation of the Regional Consultation.
After thorough review and deliberation of the group,there were eight (8) priority areas created for region 1 under the RUHRA and these were the following: (1) Triple Burden Disease (2) Health of the Vulnerable Populations (3)Drug Discovery and Development (4) Health Technology and Development (5)Food Safety and Nutrition (6) Health Governance and Policies (7) Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals and (8) Health Financing.
The consultation became a good venue for interaction and improved the relations between and among the participants.
DLSHSI’s tuberculosis (TB) and health economics experts are gearing up for the implementation of an important research on TB diagnostics which aims to identify the most cost-effective way of using diagnostic tools to improve detection rates of patients with both TB and its more potent offspring – the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
The entire research program, which will run for three years, will cost more than 50 million pesos to support activities of two groups of researchers. Aside from the DLSHSI team, there was also a counterpart team from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in the United Kingdom. This project is part of the Newton Agham Program or the UK-Philippines Joint Heath Research Grant for Infectious Diseases.
The project, entitled “Impact Assessment of Diagnostic Tools for Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR-TB) and Drug Sensitive Tuberculosis (DS-TB) in the Philippines” is touted as an important component of the Philippine’s fight against TB which continues to be the 6th largest cause of illness and death among Filipinos. While the Philippines, through its National TB Program (NTP), has made great headway in controlling TB infection in the country, detection rates for the more potent MDR-TB is still low. In the province of Cavite, only 35% of suspected MDR-TB cases are actually detected. While this is better compared to the WHO’s global rate of 12%-16%, in the Philippines, the burden of TB is doubly heavy because of the increasing cost of diagnosis and management and most of those infected are poor and rely only on the government’s health infrastructure.
“It is important that we develop appropriate strategies that will help health practitioners provide patients with cost effective options for diagnosis,” says Dr. Charles Yu, the project’s primary investigator. Dr. Yu is a professor at DLSHSI’s College of Medicine and is currently the Vice Chancellor for Lasallian Mission. He is a renowned pulmonologist and expert in TB, especially in the Asia-Pacific region and serves as a WHO consultant on Public-Private Management of the TB DOTS program. He is currently the president of the Global TB Alliance, and is the head of the Asia Pacific Society’s TB assembly. He was also a member of The Union TB Education Working Group.
Dr. Yu was aided by his co-investigators who are among DLSHSI’s noted researchers in TB, infectious diseases, and health economics. The Philippines team is composed of Dr. Victoria Dalay, Dr. Victor Mendoza, Dr. Jovilia Abong, and Ms. Celine Garfin.
Dr. Victoria Dalay is the director for Research Support and Extension Services at DLSHSI’s Angelo King Medical Research Center (DLSHSI-AKMRC) and is the head of DLSHSI’s Programmatic Management of Drug-resistant TB (PMDT) Treatment Center. She is co-chair of the Regional Coordinating Committee that leads the TB Control Program in Region IV-A and helped develop a plan of action to control TB for 2014-2016. She has also been the site investigator for USAID and NIH projects.
Dr. Victor Mendoza is a health economist based at DLSHSI who has published award-winning cost-effectiveness studies in his field of specialization – internal medicine and cardiology.
Dr. Jovilia Abong is an internist with a subspecialty in allergy and clinical immunology. She chairs of the Clinical Epidemiology Department of DLSHSI’s College of Medicine and is the director of Research Administration and Development.
Ms. Garfin is the manager of the Department of Health’s National Program for TB and has published numerous articles on TB surveillance. She is the government’s point person for all TB related activities in the country.
Dr. Yu’s team was complemented by a UK team that was composed of scientists from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, which has been a key partner in the TREAT-TB initiative responsible for impact assessment, as well as health economics and operational modeling.
An expert in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Professor S. Bertel Squire is director of the Center for Applied Health Research and Delivery (CAHRD) of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and past president of The International Union Against TB and Lung Disease. Together with his colleagues at LSTM, Malawi, and China, he has built a program of multi-disciplinary applied health research aimed at providing knowledge for action in making health services for TB more accessible to poor people in developing countries. He was joined in the DLSHSI study by Mr. Ivor Langley, a research analyst at LSTM who is an expert in health systems modeling. Mr. Langley has also been involved in developing an innovative modeling approach for impact assessment of new diagnostic tools and treatments for TB and MDR-TB. The British team is completed by Dr. Elvis Gama, a health economist at LSTM whose current research includes the evaluation of catastrophic costs for patients seeking TB diagnosis and cost effectiveness evaluations of new MDR-TB regimens.
Source: http://www.dlshsi.edu.ph/news/dlshsi-to-spearhead-50m-research-on-tb
