HEALTH-CARE information-technology solutions provider and diagnostics firm Media Archives Philippines Inc. (Mapi) is expanding its services footprint and strengthen existing ties with health-care institutions as it marks its seventh year in the industry.
Mapi turns seven years old today, August 28, and heads off to the next couple of years with guarded optimism.
Mapi President Armando “Bimbo” Quintong said the company continues to look for opportunities in “several underserved areas” in Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Northern Luzon.
“Seven years ago, Mapi was formed by a group of individuals determined to help uplift the health-care situation in the country,” Quintong said. Its teleradiology services enable patients from far-flung areas to be served and cared by a city-based doctor or radiologist via Internet or teleconference which are changing the health-care landscape.
Mapi’s maiden client was San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay City followed by Ospital ng Muntinlupa (Osmun) in Muntinlupa City.
Mapi partners with private and government hospitals in delivering teleradiology and diagnostics equipment and services that are affordable to the masses.
Today Mapi’s list of partner hospitals reaches up to Juban in Sorsogon, Cebu, Davao and in Baguio City. It is exploring possible partnerships in Olongapo, Northern Luzon, Cebu, La Union, Abra and in Cagayan province. When there’s an area where x-ray or CT-Scan/MRI services are hard to come by, Mapi would be there.
Quintong said Mapi’s partnership with cash-challenged government hospitals is some sort of a “Silent PPP [Public-Private Partnership]” that must be replicated in other parts of the country and in other key or critical industries.
“Mapi is now in partnership with several hospitals in the regional, national and provincial areas and even extended it to a rural health unit in Juban, Sorsogon. Our goal is to serve the far-flung barangays in the poorest regions in the country,” he said.
Quintong said to his surprise, local government officials in remote areas that he engaged with have the health of their constituents as their top priority.
“I’m dealing with local government units officials who are sensitive and responsible, even if sometimes health is a losing cause that does not land them in newspaper pages,” he said.
Quintong said moving forward, Mapi will launch its own Web portal in partner hospitals and sites to further improve the workflow and digital-image management.
The online portal would essentially serve as a “virtual hospital” wherein patients, diagnostics machines, doctors and radiologist technicians could interact without having to meet face to face.
Recently Mapi gave an upgrade to the Radiology Department of OsMun in Muntinlupa with a brand-new 16 Slice Siemens CT Scan to enable the hospital to take in more patients and conduct special procedures from the city and from neighboring areas, like Las Piñas, Parañaque, Cavite, Laguna and even as far as Batangas.
Mapi, likewise, added more commercial-grade viewing stations at San Juan de Dios Hospital for doctors to access images faster and will complement this with an upgraded PACS or picture archiving communications soon. By the fourth quarter of this year, Mapi will add more partner hospitals and also renew existing tie-ups, while CT-scan operations is expected to be online in Cainta Memorial Hospital, Baguio Medical Center and Eversly Hospital in Cebu.
The Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital already hosts 22 commercial grade viewing stations and will eventually install its portal onsite for improved workflow and efficiency. Mapi deployed personnel in all its sites serves to assure their host or partner hospitals immediate up time mode of its equipment.
“Mapi sees its role as an innovator in medical diagnosis thru smart solutions complemented by a grassroots program that taps competent deserving medical students with a keen eye on practicing radiology and augment the lack of radiologists,” Quintong said.
With the presence of empowered nurses, medical transcriptionists and radtechs, Mapi hopes to address the health-care deficit in underserved remote areas by being the frontliners for the radiologist doctors to diagnose, he said.