,
Stanford University School of Medicine , Stanford , United States
,
Division of Trauma, Emergency General Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , United States
,
Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev Israel
,
VSee Lab, San Jos , California , United States
Ateneo de Manila University School of Medicine and Public Health , Manila , Philippines
,
Division of Trauma, Emergency General Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , United States
Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , United States
,
Affiliate Faculty Yale Institute of Global Health, Yale University , New Haven , United States
,
Lynbrook Highschool , San Jose, California , United States
,
Los Gatos Highschool , Los Gatos , United States
Division of Trauma, Emergency General Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , United States
Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , United States
A limited number of healthcare workers and cost constraints limit primary care access in the Philippines. To test telehealth as a low-cost and effective solution, a large-scale digital health clinic was implemented in the selected urban and rural communities. In collaboration with local authorities, our pilot telemedicine clinic was implemented for 3 days in January 2023. Patients were registered and their vitals were assessed before they were seen by a remote United States-based licensed physician who provided recommendations for treatment. Medical devices with real-time streaming capabilities, such as electronic stethoscopes, were utilized to enhance remote examinations. A total of 322 patients were treated at the telehealth clinic, of which 218 completed a population health survey. A large proportion of patients had a doctor visit more than 12 months prior (39.2%) and had not received a dental examination (86.3%) or an eye examination within the past year (84.4%). Most patients had access to a smartphone (69.7%). A lower proportion had access to an internet connection that was sufficient for video calls (57.9%) or a laptop (8.5%). Our clinic demonstrated that telehealth is a feasible solution to improve primary care access for disadvantaged communities in the Philippines.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The statements, opinions and data contained in the journal are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). We stay neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.