The program is currently in the pilot-testing stage, but Guitarte disclosed that they are currently deploying a live, working system in one municipality in Metro Manila which, they hope, will be a showcase for all RHUs. 'We will be focusing initially on the public health sector but this will eventually be marketed to the private sector,' said Guitarte. He added that they may also eventually partner with other organizations' projects like the BuddyWorks Telehealth and Telementoring Project of the University of the Philippines Manila-National Telehealth Center (UPM-NTC).

'We'll try to focus on IT-enabling the rural health workers so that they can devote more time treating patients rather than doing administrative work. It's all about productivity, or doing more with less,' said Guitarte. DCI and Salus now offer e-health systems that propose to help RHUs track and identify patients claiming benefits from agencies like PhilHealth.

With only about 1.3 percent of Philippine expenditure going to health services, the partnership hopes that this joint effort between the public and private sectors can help eliminate poverty by using technology to address the widening gap between available health-care providers and Filipinos. 'A rich country is a healthy country,' said Guitarte.