Knowing how busy Cabinet secretaries are, I accepted an invitation to be one of the bloggers to meet and greet Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Janette Garin. It was probably one of her last acts under the Aquino administration but it was good to know what health programs were carried out under her watch and which ones she will be endorsing to the incoming administration.
Continue reading “Meeting DOH Secretary Janette Garin up close”
Asthma is not a joke and I personally know why. All my kids had asthma as kids. My sister and I also suffered from asthma as kids. An aunt died of asthma complications. And I had a scary episode with one of my kids because of an asthmatic episode.
Asthma is NOT to be taken lightly.
For these reasons, I am always supportive of campaigns that draw attention to asthma and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. That is why, as World Asthma Day was being celebrated a few weeks back, I lent my support to GSK’s ASTHMAlaya Campaign.
Continue reading “GSK launches its Asthmalaya campaign for World Asthma Day”
Dear kababayan Overseas Foreign Worker (OFW):
Distance won’t matter anymore. You can extend your love and care for your loved ones’ health care in the Philippines with iRegalo, a service that lines up comprehensive health care packages — medical, dental, and eye care — that you can purchase to meet your family’s specific healthcare needs.
You may ask…why would I even use iRegalo when there are remittance centers?
1. Sending money or gift items take time (It is estimated to take about 60 days if item is sent by ship).
2. Balikbayan boxes run the risk of mishandling at the postal or Customs end and many times, are charged additional Customs fees.
3. Delayed shipments mean you also miss the occasions when you want to extend help or send gifts.
iRegalo is still expanding its services but its foremost priority now is to allow OFWs to provide healthcare to your loved ones. iRegalo has arrangements with over 350 clinics nationwide to provide medical, dental, and eye care.
A leading health care solutions company based in the United States, Alere, which focuses on servicing patients with chronic diseases by providing them with near-patient diagnostic care and managing their supplies reorders, has come to the Philippines.
Alere Philippines has set up office at the Fort after having acquired a company established in Manila and felt it was a perfect match. They wanted to establish their service center platform here. Our English-speaking labor force as well as access to many healthcare-related graduates makes Alere’s presence here logical, practical and forward-looking.
Alere Home Monitoring President, Jon Russell, says it all in this video:
At the moment, the services the Philippines will be providing is the backend, i.e., Alere Philippines will be processing the ordering of diagnostic supplies by its customers, mainly in the US. By having it done here, where the time difference is almost exactly opposite that of the US, customers can place orders even outside working hours there and still have people here processing their orders so that the shipping process continues all day round worldwide.
We did a tour of the Alere offices which can hold 200 seats per floor. They plan to get another floor in the building, bringing capacity up to a maximum of 400 seats eventually. They operate normal office hours right now but eventually may move into a 24/7 work hour operation.
For those who want a career with Alere, they are currently open to hiring. Having a healthcare background (nurses, therapists, medical technologists, pharmacists, etc) is an advantage although they are also getting peope from other backgrounds. I asked how their salary structure is and I was told that they are competitive and is around the 70% percentile. Jon Russell says they are trying to develop careers, not jobs, as they hope to bring in more services into the Philippines down the road.
Alere Philippines is located on the 11th Floor of W Building, 32nd Ave. corner 5th St in Bonifacio Global City.