By Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go

CONGRESS has recently allocated P100 million for the deployment of a National Telehealth System. It is about time we do this because the technology is available and its application in health care can improve the health status, indicators and track the outcomes. It addresses the various health inequities that we currently observe.

Telehealth may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone as a referral or mentoring call, or as complex as using satellite technology and video-conferencing equipment to conduct a real-time consultation between medical specialists in two different locations.

Telemedicine is a general term for the use of communications and information technologies for the delivery of clinical care.

Telehealth addresses the lack of human health resources in remote areas. It can bring limited clinical expertise to areas where the expertise absent and is badly needed to save lives. Furthermore, the system can save cost of travel and unnecessary expenditures in poverty stricken areas or in facilities with inadequate expertise.

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By Dennis Posadas*
Contributor

THE Philippines held a National R&D Conference at the University of the Philippines last December 2008 to try to synergize its research and development (R&D) efforts in science and technology, particularly in the government. The conference involved most of the government departments and state colleges and universities that have R&D programs.

At present, like in most countries, R&D budgets are scattered across many government R&D units and agencies. Getting these agencies and their staff to work together can sometimes be a gargantuan undertaking.

In a December 2008 article in the Washington D.C. based journal Science, the Philippines was reported to have spent $81million in R&D in 2007, and this spending has remained basically the same throughout the last decade. This amount represents roughly 0.14% of GDP, a far cry from that of developed countries which often reaches 2%, and is also less than its regional neighbors like Thailand (0.26%) and Malaysia (0.69%). Worse, this amount is not a homogenous figure but is actually the sum total of government R&D spending scattered across many departments and agencies.

In a country colonized by Spain and the United States, where the saying goes that it went through “three hundred years of the Church and fifty years of Hollywood,” the normal mode of operation is to take the allocation from the national budget, and in a laizzez faire manner, do whatever one institution or department pleases in R&D.

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By Agence France-Presse

TOKYO — A Japanese research team said Thursday it had created a technology that could eventually display on a computer screen what people have on their minds, such as dreams.

Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron.

While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people’s minds.

“It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity,” the private institute said in a statement.

“By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams.”

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By Anna Valmero

Necessity is the mother of invention.

For Antonio Mateo, he invented the “Direct Rainwater Catchment System Module” to help solve the impending water shortage in the country over the next five years, specifically potable water.

Mateo said the lack of clean drinking water has been a problem for kids in remote areas who do not have the convenience to buy distilled water from purifying stations.

He cited how kids from the mountains, like the recent death cases in Baler, die from drinking unsafe water. Most of the kids in the mountains do not even reach the age of five, he lamented.

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

PASAY City, Philippines — Green colors local inventions and research in this year’s National Inventors’ Week, which happens every third week of November.

“Going green is not a choice,” said Jean Lao, chief operating officer of Chemrez Technologies, which launched an award that will identify scientists, inventors, professionals, industry practitioners and members of the academe who have developed eco-friendly products and processes.

“Normally in the country they use green products if it is less costly and does what it promises. But today we are seeing more informed consumers who are beginning to see the benefits of green products and are ready to pay the premium for it,” Lao said.

The Chemrez Green Chemistry Awards aims to highlight Filipino inventions — product or process — that can help reduce or eliminate the use or generation of substances that are hazardous to the environment.

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