CAPITOL NEWS

LINGAYEN – Pangasinan became the pilot province of the Philippine eHeaRT (e-Health Rural Health Workers Training) on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), owing to the ‘aggressive data management of the province’.

The Philippine eHeaRT MOOCs launching held at the Pangasinan Training and Development Center, here, on January 11 was formalized via the memorandum of understanding signing executed among collaborating partners, Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), University of the Philippines (UP) and the provincial government through the Provincial Health Office (PHO).

PHO Chief Anna Maria Teresa de Guzman said the courses offered online, which are accredited by the Department of Health, came as a result of Pangasinan province’s commendable ‘data governance’.

PANGASINAN HEALTH PROGRAM TIE-UP W/ UP & ATENEO. Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario, who represented Governor Amado I. Espino, III, along with Provincial Health Officer II Dr. Anna Ma. Teresa De Guzman and Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Cielo Almoite, flashes the Pangasinan No. 1 with University of the Philippines (UP) professor Peter Sy and Ateneo De Manila University (AdMU) professor Dr. Dennis Batangan after signing the memorandum of understanding to formalize the collaboration of the provincial government through the Provincial Health Office (PHO) with UP and AdMU in launching the Philippine eHeaRT (e-Health Rural Health Workers Training) on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Pangasinan. /SMDG (Photo by MVsadim)

“We adopted the ‘data quality check’ introduced by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2011 which improved our data gathering and management, producing quality data for better decision-making and appropriation of funds for health programs,” de Guzman said.

From the grassroots, data gathered by midwives are forwarded to the Rural Health Units, Inter-Local Health Zones and to the Provincial Health Office via electronic means, De Guzman added.

The Philippine eHeaRT on MOOCs, in line with the European-funded Capacity to Organize Massive Public Educational Opportunities in Universities of Southeast Asia (COMPETEN-SEA) project, creates modules for proposed MOOCs, targeting the rural health workers.

At present, there is already a MOOC developed for the program, highlighting Pangasinan’s practice on data governance, and is being pilot-tested by PHO staff.

It can be recalled that professors from AdMU and UP had onsite visits in Pangasinan which started on February 27 last year where they observed how data is gathered and processed in the province.

UP Diliman professor Peter Sy noted during the MOOCs orientation the synergy or cooperation among partner provincial government offices of the PHO to advance the health development thrust of the provincial government.

“There is a noticeable level of synergy among PHO partner offices for a guaranteed cooperation in legislation, health programs implementation, infrastructure support and now on information technology,” Sy said.

Sessions held during the MOOCs orientation encompassed instructional design basics, microdesign, producing a MOOC in opened, and microdesign in EdX.

International delegates from Open University Netherlands, Universidad Carlos Tercero de Madrid, University of Saarland, Sam Ratulangi University and Universiti Sains Malaysia are developers of online courses.

Present during the MOOCs launching, fourth district Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario, who chairs the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Health and Sanitation, assured Philippine eHeaRT and COMPETEN-SEA project partners that the provincial administration sustains its efforts to make Pangasinan ‘Home of the Healthiest Filipinos’.

“This undertaking helps the province on healthcare delivery, keeping it more updated, effective and efficient,” BM Rosario said, as he lauded the provincial leadership for the priority attention it gives for the health development agenda of the province.

Also present during the project launching were Research Associate Dennis Batangan of the AdMU and COMPETEN-SEA project leader Maro Cols. /Mark Gerry Naval Oblanca

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