Towards relevant and viable telehealth technologies

@#Disruption of the healthcare system was more pronounced in low- to middle-income countries than in developed countries during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.1 A reduction of about a third of the patient cases was observed, especially for the mild to moderate conditions.2 Considering that non-severe cases are most amenable to remote management through telehealth, the latter was a popular alternative to going to a health facility. Among its benefits include connecting patients with health providers at their convenient time and place, avoiding exposure to infection, saving time, responding early to medical emergencies, providing e-prescriptions, accessing even remote areas, among others.

Medical device development from ideation to regulation and technology transfer in low- and middle-income countries

@#Necessity motivates innovators in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs) to develop medical devices that solve unmet local health needs. At the start of each process, multidisciplinary teams incubate ideas. Design planning and validation require funding, infrastructure, procurement, and testing. Ultimately, the regulatory and technology transfer processes usher the technology to market. These stages are standard procedures in developed nations; in an LMIC, these present a new set of hurdles to overcome. To assist innovators, this paper describes the hurdles from ideation to regulation and technology transfer and delineates mechanisms to address them.

Production, recruitment, and retention of health workers in rural areas in the Philippines

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective.</strong> This study aimed to examine capacities and initiatives of the local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines in producing, recruiting and retaining human resources for health (HRH).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods.</strong> This 2-phase, descriptive, cross-sectional study employed multiple methods such as key informant interviews (KIIs), focus group discussions (FGDs) (for Phase 1) and surveys (for Phase 2) in rural municipalities across the country. Phase 1: We employed qualitative methods to develop a quantitative questionnaire in 22 purposefully selected municipalities. An exhaustive enumeration of responses from the guide questions of the FGDs and KIIs were then translated into a questionnaire. Phase 2: We administered the survey questionnaire from phase 1 to another 67 municipalities to obtain a greater representation of the intended study population as well as quantify results from the qualitative methods. We analyzed data with descriptive statistics.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results.</strong> Initiatives in HRH production were mainly on provision of scholarships. Active recruitment was not done due to lack of available pool of applicants, lack of vacant positions, financial constraints leading to utilization of deployment programs and temporary nature of employment. Recruitment was influenced by budgetary constraints, political biases, dependency on deployment programs and other hired temporary HRH, and set health worker-to-population ratios. Initiatives to retain HRH were largely financial in nature based on pertinent policies. The capacities of LGUs to produce, recruit, and retain needed HRH were strongly dependent on the internal revenue allotment (IRA), along with their local income.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusion.</strong> Rural municipalities in the Philippines have initiatives to produce, recruit, and retain HRH. However, these are not enough to meet the needed number of competent and highly motivated HRH that are expected to respond to the unique needs of the rural municipalities. Strategies to increase the capacity of LGUs, address the shortage of HRH, and increase motivation of HRH are recommended.</p>

An integrative review of home visiting programs for mothers and infants from birth to 12 months in developed and underdeveloped countries

OBJECTIVES@#To investigate home visiting for mothers and young infants, age birth-to-12 months, program goals, interventions used, home visitor characteristics and qualifications, and the program content and outcomes.@*METHODS@#Electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, and Sagepub were used. Eleven studies investi- gating home visiting from 2011-to-2016 were included. Studies were included if they: 1) were a primary study; 2) commenced during the antepartum or early postpartum period for mothers and finished before or when the infant was 12 months old; 3) and provided a description of home visiting program in terms of goal, type of home visitor, content, length, and outcomes. Data extraction included goals, activities, home visitor characteristics and qualifications, and outcomes. A descriptive approach was used to synthesize data.@*RESULTS@#Home visiting impacted birth preparedness, newborn care practices, breastfeeding practices, and home environment necessary for maternal wellness and child health and development.@*CONCLUSION@#Home visits in developed and underdeveloped countries create positive outcomes for mothers and infants. It is important to understand the process in order to make it more effective.