Have you ever experienced problems in delivering healthcare services due to the hefty and faulty paper-based systems?  This is a common concern among healthcare professionals which often causes delays and affects the quality of healthcare given to patients. Believing that Filipinos only deserve accessible and quality healthcare, the Filipino startup company, Pivotal Peak Digital Health Solutions, Inc., leverages information and communication technology (ICT) for health to address such healthcare gaps in the country.

Pivotal Peak is the spinoff company utilizing the Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS technology, a research project conducted by the University of the Philippines Manila (UP Manila) and funded by the Department of Science and Technology- Philippine Council for Health Research and Technology (DOST-PCHRD). The project developed an electronic medical record (EMR) system, which is now utilized by health workers at the regional health unit level, enabling efficient data encoding and retrieval of patient records.  Building on this experience, the company, which is composed of former CHITS researchers as its founding partners, focuses on generating innovations that will allow healthcare providers to adapt to the current needs of healthcare service delivery.

With its R&D roots, Pivotal Peak was chosen as one of the three grantees of the DOST-PCHRD Startup Research Grant program launched in December 2020. Led by its chief executive officer Dr. Arnulfo del Rosario Jr., a PCHRD Balik-Scientist, the company is set to develop a two-way electronic e-referral system that will facilitate government-to-government, private-to-private, government-to-private, and private-to-government referrals. Trainings for healthcare workers will also be part of the project to ensure that the e-referral system will be effectively implemented.To be executed as a web-based and mobile application, the system will enable a completely digital patient referral process which addresses incomplete patient data, missing and duplicate papers, and other issues that are typical to the traditional paper-based referral system.

With a more efficient referral system, the project is expected to lessen delays in patient referrals, allowing patients to avail of specialized care immediately after receiving primary healthcare.