TAWI-TAWI – Patients from this province who need continuous health monitoring no longer need to visit hospitals with the help of nine (9) RxBOX devices recently turned-over by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to selected Rural Health Units (RHUs) here.
According to Provincial Health Officer-I Dr. Andrew Mar De Vergara of Tawi-Tawi’s Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), the devices are used to monitor patients health conditions.
“The patient does not need to go physically to the hospital, but with the help of this device, basic health monitoring concerns would be performed by health workers in the RHUs,” Vergara said in an interview Friday, March 4.
“The device provides an efficient way for the health workers to monitor patients with multiple problems at once,” he added.
It is said that the RxBOX device is a real quality life experience in a telemedicine box. It is a multi-component program that captures real-time health data from the patients. It comprises medical sensors such as a blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, electrocardiogram (ECG), fetal heart monitor, maternal tocometer, and temperature sensor connected to a touch-screen tablet.
The touch-screen tablet is programmed to collect patients’ health data from the built-in medical sensors attached to the device. The health data appears real-time on the tablet screen once a patient is examined through the sensors, hence the real-life quality experience in a box.
It also has an Electronic Medical Record (EMR), storing and referring clients’ medical records via the internet to doctors and health specialists seeking consultation and medical advice.
In partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH), MOST turned-over the devices last February 22-24.
In a statement during the turned over ceremony, Engr. Abdulwahid Sendad of MOST-BARMM was quoted as saying that the device resulted from the rigorous research and development in response to the needs of the health sector in the country.
“These devices are the fruit of rigorous health research and development of the brightest mind in the country headed by UP-Manila National Telehealth Center. They have done their part and the ball is to pass unto us. These devices will be beneficial for the Bangsamoro. Let this be our response to their needs,” Sendad said.
IPHO Tawi-Tawi is the first BARMM province to receive the said devices for 2022.
The nine devices were the first batch delivered by DOST IV-A (Project Leader), with the remaining sixty-six (66) devices that are yet to be delivered and disseminated to selected rural health units in the Bangsamoro region. These devices are strategically identified to be deployed in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. (Abdel Nasser Tahang/BIO)
