eHATID LGU’s EMR system to enable interoperability of Cagayan de Oro City’s health information management systems

The City Government of Cagayan de Oro pushes forward with its response to the government’s call for Universal Health Care with its Smarter and Integrated Local Health Information System for Cagayan de Oro City (SmILHIS CDOC) Project. The SmILHIS CDOC Project will integrate the eHATID LGU (eHealth TABLET for Informed Decision-Making of Local Government Units) application, which will aid CDOC’s City-Wide Health System in gathering and storing data from patients and generating reports for the Department of Health (DOH) and the Philippine Health Insurance (PhilHealth).

eHATID LGU

The eHATID LGU technology, developed by the Ateneo de Manila University’s Institute of Philippine Culture (AdMU IPC) and supported by the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD), is an electronic medical record (EMR) system that can be accessed offline by LGUs, regional health units (RHUs), and other government entities who have signed up for the service.

Since its inception in 2012, the application aims to improve patient data management, doing away with the clutter and redundancies of paper-based records systems and allowing RHUs to input their data electronically even without the internet. The EMR system also provides RHUs and LGUs with health data analytics and a mayor-doctor communication system that may assist local governments and their healthcare institutions in making informed decisions before implementing health programs.

Other than the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, the eHATID LGU technology taps other DOST agencies like the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI)’s cloud and research service, COARE (Computing and Archiving Research Environment), for its database and the Technology Adoption and Promotion Institute (TAPI) for the EMR system’s distribution to LGUs through its Technology Innovation for Commercialization (TECHNiCOM) Program.

Empowering Cagayan de Oro City’s Health System through eHATID LGU

In February 2019, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed R.A. 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act which aims to “(e)nsure that all Filipinos are guaranteed equitable access to quality and affordable health care goods and services… .” In keeping with the intentions of this Act, which also pushes for better performance in the healthcare system, CDOC sent a letter of intent to AdMU IPC to become a part of the eHATID 2 Interoperability Layer, and a non-exclusive limited license for the use of the eHATID LGU technology was granted to them in 2019.

But the journey to full compliance with the Universal Health Care Act does not stop at receiving the tablet.

For CDOC to fulfil the objectives of R.A. 11223, the city requires an overhaul of their existing health care system.

TECHNiCOM first assisted in transitioning the eHATID LGU’s business model to one that better supports the National eHealth Program (NeHP) and R.A. 100055, or the Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009. The new model packages eHATID LGU’s EMR as a ‘Software as a Service’ product that caters to public and private health facilities.

Meanwhile, the City Government of Cagayan de Oro, together with AdMU IPC, initiated an interoperability layer (IOL) prototype for the city’s health records management system, which led to the inception of the SmILHIS CDOC Project.

With the eHATID LGU system at its core and the help of its collaborators— DOST – PCHRD, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and the University of the Philippines – Department of Computer Science—the City Government of Cagayan de Oro is currently planning to enhance the existing electronic health systems of the city to facilitate health information-sharing among local institutions. From the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the project on September 2020 to May 2021, the SmILHIS CDOC Technical Working Group conducted researches and lectures as they built the framework that would make the development of the SmILHIS CDOC system possible.

On August 20, 2021, the SmILHIS CDOC team will report on the progress of the project and will sign an Executive Order drafted by the City Government of Cagayan de Oro and AdMU IPC that enables the creation of a governing body within the government of CDOC which oversees the implementation of the IOL and ensures that it operates adhering to international standards and to local and national laws and policies on eHealth and data privacy.

In addition to the Executive Order, a reaffirmation document authored by the CDOC government and AdMU IPC highlighting their commitment to achieving Universal Health Care for the citizens of CDO will also be signed during the event.
The event will be held online via Zoom and will be streamed through the DOST – TAPI Facebook page at 4:30 in the afternoon. The event is open to the public. Those who wish to join through the Zoom event may register through this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-CJo-gxZRiOaVdH03dOHcw