Loaded with medical tools and technologies, the RxBox enables healthcare workers to provide a broader scope of healthcare to isolated, remote or disadvantaged communities in the Philippines.
With a population of more than 98 million spread out over seven thousand islands, providing access to healthcare to people in the Philippines can be a challenge. In order to service people living in remotely-located or isolated villages, the National Telehealth Centre in Manila developed the RxBox, a portable, multi-component medical toolkit. RxBox is equipped with a range of devices and sensors that allows community health workers to assess a variety of physical signs in one consultation, as well as record and store patient medical data. Healthcare workers can also use the system to call on specialists in instances where a patient requires further analysis or care.
The box is equipped with tools like: a blood pressure monitor; pulse oximetre; ECG; fetal heart monitor; maternal tocometre; and temperature sensor. The RxBox provides community healthcare workers and patients with a lot more flexibility, allowing diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of certain conditions – such as cardiovascular or respiratory complications – to take place at rural facilities and not just in metropolitan, highly-populated areas. In particular, the system helps healthcare professionals maintain and keep electronic, long-term patient medical records, which, in the event of a disaster like 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan, protects this data from being destroyed.
Launched at the start of 2014 as part of a broader national eHealth programme, the RxBox system is currently in use in 115 sites across the country. To learn more about RxBox, head to the National Telehealth Centre’s website or watch the video below.
