Official group photo from the Department of Health Philippines taken during the workshop
The Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS) of the Department of Health (DOH) Philippines and the World Health Organization (WHO) Philippines Country Office co-organized the “Workshop on the Reconstitution of the National eHealth Program Strategy” at Hotel Seoul in Clarkfield, Pampanga from March 6-10, 2023.
The three themes for the four-day workshop were how eHealth is shaping the Philippine healthcare landscape towards Universal Health Care (UHC), collaborative eHealth vision in supporting UHC, and crucial eHealth initiatives to drive UHC in the medium-term.
The discussions included local and global eHealth efforts, lessons from the Philippine eHealth Program since 2013, data privacy and protection, visions and missions and the accompanying challenges, the high-level goals and key performance indicators needed to address challenges, risks, and dependencies in deliverables, proposed revisions on the Philippines’ eHealth governance and accountability structure, enterprise architecture, the UHC Act in the Philippines as well as the Philippine National Health Data Repository Framework (NHDR).
Francis Uy, Chief Enterprise Architect from Sinag Solutions, Inc. and consultant under the DOH Consultancy Project on Updating of the Health Sector Enterprise Architecture, discussed the value of enterprise architecture in executing the Philippines’ Health Sector Strategy (2023-2028). Uy is also a member of AeHIN and the AeHIN Regional Enterprise Architecture Council for Health (REACH).
Engr. Jovita V. Aragona, Senior Vice-President and Chief Information Officer of the Information Management Sector of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), was among the participants. She emphasized the significance of working through a multi-sectoral approach and aligning strategies toward UHC. Aragona is also a member of AeHIN and the AeHIN Working Council (WC).
Dr. Portia Grace Fernandez-Marcelo, Professor III at the University of the Philippines Manila and former AeHIN WC member, facilitated a part of the workshop activities. To close the discussion, she synthesized the activities with an illustration in the official report (link to follow).
It shows that the first version of the Philippines’ National eHealth Strategy (2023-2028) is based on the research and best practices gathered from the National eHealth Program since 2013, the National eHealth environment assessment of the DOH, and the workshop on the reconstitution of the National eHealth Program and Strategy. It will be shared with stakeholders for a townhall and finalization workshop to produce the final version which will be aligned with the Global Perspective on eHealth, the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, and the UHC Act & National eHealth Strategy 2023-2028.