The eHatid project led by Dr. Dennis Batangan of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) won the People’s Choice Award in this year’s Gawad TECHNiCOM for their Facebook video entitled, “Tugon sa Hamon.”

Organized by the Department of Science and Technology – Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI), the Gawad TECHNiCOM is part of the week-long Accomplishments and Culminating Activity of Special Projects (WACAS). TECHNiCOM provided funding support to Filipino-led innovations to assist them in commercialization.

This year’s awards featured nine nominees distributed to three clusters: 1) Gawad DAGTA for agriculture, aquaculture, forest product derivatives and innovations, 2) Gawad DAGITAB for industry, energy, information, and communication technologies, and 3) Gawad DAGISIK for health and food security. All nominees published a video dedicated to their projects on Facebook.

Among the nine video entries, “Tugon sa Hamon” generated the highest engagement on the social media platform, receiving the most number of likes and views. In their entry, Dr. Batangan detailed the team’s journey in developing the eHatid project, from conceptualization to its implementation in partnership with several local government units (LGU).

With support from the DOST – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD), the eHatid project started in 2013, with the development of the eHealth Technology-Assisted Boards for LGU Efficiency and Transparency (eHealth TABLET) prototype.

The project “provides health Information system and decision-making support to LGUs through an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) that generates particular health reports for the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth)” (eHATID LGU).

The technology was further improved in 2019 to comply with the implementation of the Universal Healthcare Law (UHC). “I think it was the last quarter of 2019, we were wrapping up the eHATID TECHNiCOM project and we were concerned on what would be the prospects of the work that we’re doing, because of the so many uncertainties under the Universal Healthcare Law,” Dr. Batangan shared in their video entry.

“(We went) back to the drawing board and reconceptualized everything within the frame of the UHC. For which, we developed a design for local health information exchanges suited for city-wide health systems and province-wide health systems,” he added. Aside from Cagayan de Oro City, the project team also has an ongoing partnership with Pangasinan Province.

The now-enhanced technology enables storage of patient data, assists LGUs in making informed decisions for community healthcare programs, and integrates the patient data into the eClaims benefit of PhilHealth. The technology can be accessed even on mobile and offline by its end-users.

In the same video, Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno thanked the project team for their contributions in improving the healthcare delivery in their province. “We’re very fortunate to have been chosen by Dr. Batangan and DOST to be a pilot city of this project,” he said. “This program will integrate and make our health data accessible easily and can be of good use especially as we embark on the Universal Health Care program,” he added.

In closing, Dr. Batangan highlighted how the technology is borne from the hard work of Filipino innovators. “These technologies that we’re developing are developed by Filipinos. Atin ‘to, ang coding nito, Filipino lahat. Design, Filipino. (This is ours, from coding to the design–these were all accomplished by Filipinos).”

Dr. Batangan was also given a Certificate of Recognition for being one of the top three (3) nominees for the Technicom Gawad 2021 under the Gawad DAGISIK Category.

All video entries may be accessed through this link.

References:

1. https://www.pchrd.dost.gov.ph/programs-and-services/create-article/6456-ehatid-lgu-android-based-electronic-medical-record-system-for-lgus
2. http://www.tapi.dost.gov.ph/news/140-dost-tapi-holds-wacas-anew-lauds-top-technicom-beneficiaries
3. http://tapitechnicom.dost.gov.ph/resources/faqs/about-technicom-2/
4. http://ehatid.ehealth.ph/