Philippine Red Cross Tackles COVID-19 Through Massive Technology Shift

Originally Published on: 6 October 2022

As the world was caught off-guard by COVID-19, healthcare systems all over the world struggled to address the unprecedented challenges posed by the highly contagious virus.

On the forefront of the fight was the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), who along with the rest of the country's healthcare institutions, grappled with the increase in demand for diagnostic requests coupled with the limitations in movement and high risk of exposure.

They also realized that their conventional practices, such as conducting manual registrations, physical consultations, and tests in public and private spaces, can lead to super-spreader events, even in controlled conditions.

Moreover, human error was inevitable with the sheer number of requests and demand for faster results being shouldered by small teams of lab workers. This resulted in erroneous and missing entries that caused further delays in testing and results.

COVID-19 also created the need for health and government institutions to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate, which proved to be extremely difficult with their use of varying forms and tools.

The PRC recognized the need to automate and digitalize their operations from patient registration to the release of test results and they needed to do it fast.

This led to their partnership with Dashlabs.ai as these challenges pushed them to rethink their existing testing protocols and work processes.

CONVENIENCE AND SAFETY

With Dashlabs.ai, the PRC was able to introduce and institutionalize the use of the electronic Case Investigation Forms (e-CIFs), which enabled patients to conveniently fill-up a single form, through their smartphones or computers, in the comfort and safety of their homes by simply scanning a QR code. Data collected through the e-CIFs are automatically uploaded into the Dashlabs.ai software. This greatly reduced the risk of exposure to COVID-19 of patients and health workers alike and eliminated data entry errors.

It also allowed patients to monitor and receive updates about their tests in real-time, through their smartphones.

By using e-CIFs, PRC lab workers increased their output from 3000 to 15,000 COVID-19 tests per day. In fact, they managed to conduct 1.2 million COVID-19 tests in less than five (5) months.

"[Dashlabs.ai] has made our jobs as pathologists more streamlined. Ultimately, this software is responsive to our needs, easy to understand, & has drastically improved our laboratory turnaround time." - Jonathan Rivera, MD, Anatomic and Clinical Pathologist Molecular Laboratory - PRC Port Area

SAVE TIME, SAVE MONEY

They were also able to reduce their frontline staff from over 200 volunteers encoding data to just less than ten (10) people receiving specimens. Pathologists optimized their workflow and decreased their work time from 45 minutes per batch to just under five (5) minutes.

The PRC was also able to cut down on paper and labor expenses, which previously cost them somewhere between PHP735 to PHP3,700 in labor costs alone.

SMOOTH COMMUNICATIONS

The quick and secure access to e-CIFs streamlined the communication between the government and testing centers across the Philippines, which helped create, share, and utilize real-time data on active cases, making it easier among Philippine Red Cross testing centers and partners across the Philippines.

With Dashlabs.ai's growing partnership with the PRC, they are continuing to:

1. Save costs. No Capex and Opex; no expensive license to maintain.
2. Scale quickly. Add new features and increase capacities or scale down whenever the need arises.
3. Integrate with other systems. Interoperability with other systems allows for seamless integration. For example, Dashlabs.ai has direct API integration with the government for reporting COVID-19 cases
4. Eliminate silos. Centralized, fully-integrated platform for effortless data management, real-time insights, and analytics.

For the Philippines' Healthcare system, the PRC's shift to digital is just the beginning as they have inspired other laboratories and healthcare facilities to adopt Dashlabs.ai's technology - one that is disrupting the laboratory medicine and diagnostics industries and ultimately, paving the way for better healthcare for all.