“It came to our attention that the issue has also been the lack of internal DOH funding for researches done by RITM,” said Dr. Beverly Ho, Chief of Research Division of the Department of Health-Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau (DOH-HPDPB) in her talk during the RITM Research Agenda 2017-2022 Updating Workshop on July 4-6, 2018 at the A. Venue Hotel, Makati City.

In her keynote lecture, Dr. Ho introduced the Advancing Health through Evidence-Assisted Decisions with Health Policy and Systems Research (AHEAD-HPSR) Program, which replaced the Health Systems Research Management Program. The new program will serve as the new research-granting strategy for medium-term health policy and system research agenda.

“There is support for RITM, financially…from us,” Dr. Ho emphasized.

Organized by the Research and Innovations Office (RIO), the workshop served as an avenue for the different study groups to draft capsule proposals for their prospective studies. Representatives from the Institute’s research groups and departments also presented the studies they conducted in the last two years.

“Research is our primary mandate. So pagbubutihin natin ito, and let’s make sure that we are aligned to what DOH needs, what PCHRD (Philippine Council for Health Research and Development) needs, and what our country needs,” said RITM Director, Dr. Socorro P. Lupisan, as she welcomed the workshop participants.

A total of seventeen (17) research groups participated in the workshop, namely: Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), HIV/AIDS, Dengue, Diarrheal Diseases, Filovirus, Hepatitis B, Leprosy, Medical Research Group, Molecular Biology (MBL), Microbiology, Rabies, Schistosomiasis, Snake Bites, Transmutable-Transmissible Infections (TTI), Tuberculosis,Virology, and Malaria Study Group.

Other important matters such as the establishing and standardizing the procedure for writing leave application for researchers, the revision of the Institute’s research policy and conflict of interest policy were also discussed during the workshop.

by Rendell Jay Dago-oc, Communication and Engagement Office Intern