Tim Churches wrote:
> Cito, I think that you have to agree that UP (University of
> Philippines), as the premier university in the country, is hardly
> typical of most colleges in the Phils, and a Medical Informatics Unit
> even less so. A survey of provincial universities and of some of the
> hundreds (or more likley thousands) private colleges and business
> schools which offer IT training as various levels would be more
> representative (but difficult and expensive to do).
I'm glad that an objective observer ranks us as "the premier university
in the country". For me to say so would be tantamount to bragging :-).
One of the things I plan to do when I return is to attempt a survey of
the IT resources of the schools that are members of the Association of
Philippine Medical Colleges (APMC). This would give us some baseline
figures which we could use in designing medical informatics learning
objectives for medical schools throughout the country.
> My first-hand impressions - and I concede that they are just anecdotal -
> are now a year old but I am in regular touch via email with friends and
> acquaintances who work in health NGOs and/or in private clinics and
> hospitals (mostly in both). The only larger hospital I am familiar with
> in Manila is Lourdes, and in April last year the level of hardware
> potentially available for clinical use was not inspiring. My spouse
> hails from Tarlac (about 120 km north of Manila) and computer hardware
> at Tarlac Provincial Hospital (governemt-run) and Ramos Memorial
> (private) was worse. My impression is that many health and social NGOs
> seem to have far more PCs at their disposal because they typically have
> links with overseas donor agencies who often arrange for obsolete
> computers to be shipped to the NGO - hence the predominance of 486s and
> low end Pentium systems. I haven't had a chance to spend much time in
> rural areas for a few years now, but my sister-in-law regularly does and
> she reports that old or low-end PCs are slowly appearing even in
> out-of-the-way baranggay (aka barrios, villages), but usually only
> singly (no networks).
My family has a program where we donate used computers to a public high
school to my father's home town in Pangasinan (that's the province just
north of Tarlac). A computer vendor in the nearest big city (Dagupan)
was encouraged enough to match the donations with an equivalent number
of state of the art machines (Celerons and P-IIIs). Again, probably not
typical, but probably something that could be replicated in other parts
of the Philippines (and the developing world).
I've seen the Regional Hospitals in Davao and Cagayan de Oro, and they
do have LANs and P-IIs and P-IIIs. On the other end of the spectrum,
I've been to a Municipal Health Office in Cavite (just a few hours south
of Manila), where only an old PC-286 was running. The gap is closing though.
>
> As I said, and as you point out, all this will change, probably quite
> rapidly, but my point is that it is easy to get carried away with
> enthusiasm for what can be acheived with incredibly powerful sub US$1000
> PCs when the on-the-ground reality in many places is less exciting.
> Likewise support for and knowledge of Linux: while Linux might be a good
> choice in Manila, or Cebu City, or Davao, or even Bacolod, it might not
> be such a wise choice in Ilo-Ilo, or Samar, or Abra. Evangelism is
> required to change this situation, but evangelists need to be careful
> that they don't create too many martyrs along the way (or should that be
> crusaders?).
This is where enlisting the help of the local Linux User group could
come in. I'm on the Philippine Linux User Group Mailing list, and aside
from the major cities you mentioned (Manila, Cebu, Davao, Bacolod), I
also see posts from Linux users in General Santos and Iligan. It would
be nice to assess the state of overall linux (and other F & OSS)
penetration on a nationwide basis.
> I'm sure everyone on this list would love to learn more about the
> curriculum - it sounds really exciting. This is one area in which
> developing countries can steal a march on richer nations.
It actually is the topic of my MSc dissertation. Developing a medical
informatics curriculum for Undergraduate Medical Education. Aside from
implementing and making relevant health informatics education learning
objectives from various sources, I will be emphasizing the use of F &
OSS for the infrastrucure and software development.
> Maybe you can post the poster on the Web after the conference (if the
> conference organisers don't do that anyway)?
I've promised that to the IMIA-Working group 1 as well. I'll keep the
list informed.
>>> The moral of the story is that like all other aspects of development
>>> work in developing countries, health informatics people need to be
>>> sensitive to and tuned in to local realities and desires, and realise
>>> that ultimately decisions about how to proceed must be made by local
>>> people.
>>
>> Our unit is composed of local people. Do we count? <grin>
>
>
> It depends on what scale you define "local". In the Philippines there is
> NCR (National Capital Region) and then there is the rest of the nation
> ;-)
Ouch! (or should i say "Aray!"). Touche.
A UPCM graduate wrote a book some years back entitled "Manila
Colonialism". It spoke about how the capital city tended to treat the
rest of the Philippines as its own colony.
> My comment was more in the context of Ignacio Valdes's reference to the
> use of OSS in aid and development projects. Its a good idea to use OSS
> wherever possible, but if the nearest, readily available source of
> computer support doesn't know anything about Linux, then Linux is
> probably not a good idea until such expertise can be developed. Which is
> why your OSS curriculum is so exciting.
Well, I've been using Linux since 1994, when my colleague, Eric Pareja
and I put up one of the first Linux LANs in the Philippines. But growth
of Linux usage has been slow until about 2 years ago, when it mirrored
the increase in Linux usage in the rest of the world. I think with just
a little more pushing, the technical base of experts will be there in
the near future.
>> Tim, if you are ever in Manila, don't hesitate to pay us a visit. I
>> won't be back till October (I'm at the University of Warwick, taking an
>> MSc in Health Information Science). But I'm sure my colleagues
>> (especially our 2 Co-Chairs, Dr. Alvin Marcelo and Dr. Nilo Santos),
>> would be happy to see you.
>
>
> Siguro malapit sa Pasko 2001.
Maganda yun! Nakabalik na rin ako sa 'Pinas. Pakisabi na lang kapag
darating na po kayo,
Inyong Lingkod,
Cito Maramba
(apologies to those not able to comprehend Tagalog. Just some personal
stuff at the end there)
