Celebrating the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health’s 25 years of meaningful health research in the service of the Filipino people
CLINICAL MATTERS
DR. EDSEL SALVANA
The University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH) celebrated its silver anniversary from Feb. 27 to 28 with the theme, “Transforming Philippine Health Systems toward Universal Healthcare through Research Partnerships.”
The UP-NIH was created on Jan. 26, 1996, at the University of the Philippines Manila by the board of regents to strengthen the research capability of the University of the Philippines and to serve as an institutional home of a network of health researchers and research institutions. It was established as a national health research center through Republic Act 8503, also known as the Health Research and Development Act on Feb. 13, 1998.
Since its creation, the NIH has continuously made its mark in the health research landscape of our country. Its institutes and centers have been prime sources of relevant, evidence-based health information for health policy development as well as socially responsive technologies for improving the lives of Filipinos. From the original four founding institutes, the UP-NIH has grown to 10 institutes and five centers. The UP-NIH is also home to an impressive number of research programs and study groups. These groups are made up of multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, and collaborative researchers with a common research agenda focused on an important health problem.
This year’s silver anniversary celebration emphasized the vital role of health research in the pursuit of universal healthcare for Filipinos and also looked back on the many contributions of UP-NIH to the nation. The keynote plenaries were given by Department of Science and Technology Secretary (DOST) Renato Solidum, Jr. and Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire. Both speakers highlighted the long-standing and vital relationships between the UP-NIH and their respective departments. Newly installed UP president Angelo Jimenez was also on hand to witness the opening ceremonies and to congratulate the UP-NIH for its immense contributions to the country in the last 25 years.
The DOH highlighted the invaluable contributions of UP-NIH to the pandemic response, which enabled the government to navigate and respond to the pandemic in an evidence-based and scientific manner. Many of the experts that advised the President, the IATF-EID and the DOH came from UP-NIH. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG), which sat in on all the IATF-EID meetings, was made up of three infectious diseases doctors, two of whom were from UP-NIH (Dr. Marissa Alejandria and myself). The IATF Technical Working Group for Covid-19 Variants included the TAG and UP-NIH executive director Dr. Eva Maria Cutiongco-dela Paz, along with partners from the Philippine Genome Center, the DOH, and the DOST. The first DOH-accredited Covid-19 testing laboratory outside DOH’s own subnational laboratories was the UP-NIH BSL-3 (Biosafety Level 3) facility, which we readily converted when it became clear that our services were direly needed. UP-NIH personnel worked tirelessly in those early days of the pandemic to help the DOH respond to the urgent demand for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing. Biosafety and biosecurity training for new molecular laboratory personnel nationwide was also provided by UP-NIH. Prior to the pandemic there had already been many partnerships between the different institutes and DOH, but the pandemic brought home how important the UP-NIH is to the Philippine health system. Secretary Vergeire also outlined the next steps toward further integrating UP-NIH as an essential partner in the implementation of Universal Healthcare.
The DOST through the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) has provided hundreds of millions of pesos in grants to the NIH. These grants have generated crucial evidence to guide national health policy, fueled the creation of innovative devices and interventions, and established laboratories and facilities that have enabled and nurtured hundreds of Filipino researchers. Secretary Solidum then enumerated the many projects and innovations that were borne out of these partnerships.
Essential health policy papers and legislation were crafted with evidence and guidance from researchers from various UP-NIH institutes. The Rare Disease Act of the Philippines, the Newborn Screening Act, the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention Act, the National Vision Screening Act, the Philippine Tobacco Regulation Act, Universal Health Care Law, Philippine Biosafety and Biosecurity Framework, and amendments to the Magna Carta for Scientists are just a few of the many laws that were enacted with the NIH as a key proponent or partner. Seminal policies and manuals dealing with important health problems and solutions, including healthy aging, health financing, infectious diseases, telemedicine, eye and vision health, herbal medicine, quality assurance of therapeutics, ear health, vaccine-preventable illnesses, child health, clinical epidemiology, biosafety and biosecurity, diagnostics and standardization of clinical practice guidelines and clinical trials are among the many contributions of UP-NIH researchers to the country.
Diagnostic kits and devices, including a locally developed dengue test kit (Biotek-M), a Covid-19 RT-PCR kit (Gen-Amplify), and a portable vital signs monitor used for telemedicine (RxBox) are some of the innovations already being used by healthcare workers and hospitals nationwide. Herbal medicine preparations from traditional medicine sources, such as lagundi for cough and sambong for kidney stones that are widely used by Filipinos, were developed in partnership with UP-NIH institutes. There are many more diagnostic and therapeutic products in development.
Laboratories and facilities that were set up with the assistance of DOST include the Philippine Genome Center (PGC), which was instrumental in the biosurveillance of Covid-19 variants in the country. The PGC was the brainchild of UP Manila chancellor Carmencita Padilla, who also founded the UP-NIH Institute of Human Genetics and the Center for Newborn Screening. Highly advanced molecular and genetic testing laboratories have also been established in the UP-NIH and these have been used to study and characterize a multitude of disease states both for research and to guide clinical management.
The directors of the 15 institutes and centers of the UP-NIH presented and proposed actionable, evidence-based recommendations for health policy and public health programs during the anniversary. The 10 institutes are the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (to which I belong), the Philippine Eye Research Institute, the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Institute of Human Genetics, the Institute of Herbal Medicine, the Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Institute of Health Policy and Development Studies, the Institute on Aging, and the Philippine National Ear Institute. The five centers are the National Telehealth Center, the Newborn Screening Reference Center, the Newborn Hearing Screening Reference Center, the National Training Center for Biosafety and Biosecurity, and the National Clinical Trials and Translation Center.
Other speakers included respected national academicians such as Dr. Antonio Dans and Dr. William Padolina. Presenters from academic partners, including the UP College of Medicine, Harvard University, the University of Santo Tomas, and the Ateneo de Manila University also delivered insightful lectures on a variety of health research topics.
The responses from the partner agencies were delivered by PCHRD director Dr. Jaime Montoya on behalf of DOST, and OIC undersecretary Dr. Beverly Ho for DOHG. Dr. Montoya and Dr. Ho both highlighted the fruitful partnerships between UP-NIH and their respective agencies, and they both looked forward to continuing to work together with UP-NIH in the future to improve the health of the Filipino people.