BANTAY
GOBYERNO
Ike
Señeres
I used to say
that for as long as there is a signal, I could deliver all online services to
any point in the Philippines, regardless of height or distance. That would mean
delivering online services even to the highest mountain or the farthest island,
again for as long as there is a signal. Nowadays however, I do not say that
anymore because one way or the other, I could find the means to deliver a
signal to anywhere meaning everywhere within the territory of the Philippines.
Going back to my basic premise; it would also mean that we could deliver any
and all online services to anywhere, for as long as there is something to
deliver, meaning that for as long as there is a service provider at the
backend.
Pardon me if
it might sound as if I am bragging, but please understand where I am coming
from, the fact that I am coming from an era of dial-up modems, when the fastest
means of connectivity was copper phone lines. Perhaps it was just a play of
words, but we accepted the legal fiction at that time that Digital Service Line
(DSL) was a high speed broadband connection, but it was only later on when we
understood that despite the hype, DSL was still running on copper and it was
only considered as high speed because it was the highest possible speed at that
time, but it was really nothing compared to the real high speed fiber optic
connectivity that we have today.
As the saying
goes: if there is a will, there is a way, and that saying applies as well to
installing connectivity! In other words, if there is a desire, there is always
a way to install a connection, one way or the other. In some cases, the cost of
connectivity might become an issue, but in response to that, the costs should
be evaluated in relation to how much value it would create. For example, how
much value could you assign to a means of connectivity that could not only save
human lives, but also improve human lives, among others that it would be capable
of doing? From my perspective, I would even say that no matter how much the
cost of connectivity is, the value that it would create would always be higher
or greater.
I would not
be surprised if DSL is still available in many parts of our country, still good
for connecting to the internet. In practically all of these locations, Global
System for Mobile (GSM) communications is still available, ready to connect
your mobile phones to the internet. And in many locations in our country, Long
Term Evolution (LTE) is already available, providing better and faster
connectivity. Aside from these three, fiber optic connections are now available
from third party providers or from cable television operators. And if that is
not enough, there is always the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) option that
provides satellite connectivity. On top of all these, there is always a
microwave option that could connect distant locations via line of sight.
In theory,
any form of two-way communications between two people for medical purposes
could already be considered as telemedicine, even if the person at the other
end is not necessarily a doctor or a medical professional. In a recent visit to
the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) in Davao City, I was excited to
find out that they already have a Department of Telemedicine, and they are
already making great progress in the fields of tele-radiology and
tele-psychiatry. What is good about this development is that the SPMC is more
than willing to reach out to all the other hospitals in Mindanao, thus forming
a massive network of hubs and spokes, SPMC being one of the hubs.
In recent
memory, we could recall that it was a huge challenge how to transmit large
files such as X-Ray files from one point to another. That problem was partially
solved when Dropbox and Google Drive came along. The better solution came when
cloud hosting became cheaper, and that is the solution that SPMC is using now.
Instead of transmitting large files from one point to another, these files are
now uploaded to the cloud, and from there, these could already be read from the
internet, using a browser or viewer. One good thing about this technology is
that most hospitals are using the same Digital Imaging and Communications in
Medicine (DICOM) standard. Note that DICOM is not a brand, it is a standard,
perhaps a shining example of how technology could be used to benefit all of
mankind, and not just their greedy proprietary brand owners.
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