PAN Asian Collaboration for Evidence-based e-Health Adoption and Application (PANACeA)

PANACeA is an initiative to generate evidence in the field of e-health within the Asian context, by forming a network of researchers and research projects from developing Asian countries. This regional research “mega-project” is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, and administered by the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan.

MDFI, as represented by the Executive Director, Dr. Angelo Juan Ramos, acts as a member of the Advisory and Monitoring Team that oversees the conduct of eight projects that are being implemented by various research teams from different countries in Asia, namely: the Philippines, Pakistan, Malaysia, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal. The research projects supported by PANACeA address the following four research questions:

   1. Which e-health applications and practices have had the most beneficial outcomes on the health of individuals, communities and the improvement of health systems?

   2. What are the best ways for ensuring that beneficial outcomes can reach the segment of the population that still doesn't have adequate access to health services?

   3. What is the potential of using new pervasive technologies such as mobile phones / PDAs as tools to make the delivery of health services or information more effective?

   4. What types of technologies / applications are best suited to help prepare for, or mitigate the effects of, disasters, pandemics and emerging and re-emerging diseases?

Each project was driven by a specific health need and the e-health solution addresses one or more of the following domains: prevention/surveillance, administration, clinical, education, research.

The objectives of this project are:

   1. To support a set of multi-country research activities to address the four core research questions listed above.

   2. To create a theoretical model for evaluating good practice in e-health programs in Asia.

   3. To build research capacity amongst Asian researchers to evaluate and adopt appropriate e-health technologies and practices and influence policy and decision-makers.

   4. To disseminate research findings widely in the regional and international research communities.

MDFI is the lead organization for the PANACeA Research project, entitled “Community-based e-Health Promotion for Safe Motherhood: Linking Community Maternal Health Needs with Health Services System”. Ms. Irma Saligumba, Health Research and Projects Coordinator, is the Project Leader. She is the overall coordinator of this project, with partners from Indonesia and Pakistan.

Irma is also a research partner in two of PANACeA’s other projects, namely on Telemedicine for Disasters (with Indonesia and India), and the use of e-health in Remote Consultation to Improve Maternal Health Services in Rural Areas (with Mongolia).