eHealth and Innovation: better service for the health patient and citizen in ASEAN

eHealth is described as “an innovation process rather than just a structure or technology for the delivery of better healthcare” according to Beraterbide and Kelsey (2009). In the experience of many countries in the region, innovations in eHealth did not only require the adoption of new technologies but also the accompanying organizational change that takes into consideration social, political, and economic context. Innovations in eHealth must be “usable, sustainable, and scalable” and “address population-level needs and priorities. At the same time, they should serve a broader purpose, expanding to other population groups and contexts” (Shuvo, 2015). It then becomes not just a technology and innovation challenge but a governance challenge — one that requires long-term commitment from stakeholders and a painstaking process of calibrating technology, the existing architecture for innovation, and the end-user: the regular citizen. These technologies are considered disruptive and as such come with deployment issues but at the same time huge pay offs for both the regulatory and implementing bodies as well as the clients. It is in the “systemically organized interactions between governments, knowledge based institutions and financial arbitrageurs” (Bartels, 2013) that these pay offs (not the least of which is better quality health care) materialize.

In Indonesia, the use of information technology in KeluargaSehat improve access to health services at the village level through family visits, which also become an occasion for data collection and health promotion. This includes Prokesga, a mobile health application in its pilot stage that helps eliminate the use of paper in data health management. Halo Bidan (Hello Midwife) in West Java uses SMS to provide maternal and infant health education, and is a referral system for handling both normal and high-risk childbirth. Yet another application, mHealth, tracks the growth and development of children under five. A similar application is used in Thailand to measure the height and weight of children after vaccination. Thailand also developed HosMate, an android application that informs patients of specific hospital procedures, including the status of their service request, the steps to take, and where and when to go, thus cutting down on waiting time for hospital visits and procedures. Chulalongkorn Hospital also utilizes self-service kiosks called Pressbox to facilitate patient procedures. (IPC, 2017)

The Philippines also has developed a number of eHealth technologies that serve the purpose of providing better access and analytics to health care providers. The Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC) of the Ateneo de Manila University, for example, has developed an eHealth Tablet for Informed Decision Making or eHATID for short, an EMR (electronic medical record) system used in 42 local governments in the Philippines based on the Department of Health (DoH) National eHealth Program update. Other products developed under the research team of Dr. Dennis Batangan at the IPC include an “interoperability layer” that links data sources with government procedures for better services. For example, such a link may lessen the wait time or the number of steps needed in the process for the waiting patient and LGU constituent. New eHealth products are being developed as well to assist in the feeding programs of LGUs.

Needless to say, the potential for bettering health services, especially at the local level, is potentially enormous given the right regulatory and governance environment. It is something that all ASEAN States aim to provide their citizens. At some point, a greater push may be needed at the ASEAN level to address new and emerging regional health risks and challenges as a collective (Batangan and Lopez, 2017).

It is in this spirit that the Ateneo de Manila University IPC (with the support of the School of Social Sciences and the Office of the Vice-President for University and Global Relations), in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology Philippine Council for Health Research and Development and the ASEAN University Network Health Promotion Network (AUN HPN) will host the “iLaunch, An ASEAN Health Interactive Launch” on Aug. 21, 4:30 p.m., at the Novotel Cubao. The iLaunch, a post-AUN HPN conference event, endeavors to bring together the different eHealth technologies of ASEAN countries for the sharing of best practices towards the goal of greater understanding of regional health issues and “usable, sustainable and scalable” eHealth technologies by which to solve them. The main conference, the 2^nd AUN International Health Promotion Conference is sponsored by the University of the Philippines and will be held on Aug. 20 to 21 with the theme “Moving Towards Healthy Universities in Asia.”

Maria Elissa Jayme Lao, DPA is the Director of the Institute of Philippine Culture and an Assistant Professor at Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Political Science.