A-HEALS

The Ateneo Center for Health Evidence, Action and Leadership (A-HEALS) is a consortium of 8 Ateneo schools, which includes the four Ateneo Professional Schools (School of Medicine and Public Health, School of Government, Graduate School of Business, School of Law), and the four Ateneo Loyola Schools (School of Science and Engineering, School of Social Sciences, School of Humanities, John Gokongwei School of Management).
 
The Center’s vision is to contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty by engaging in effective public health interventions which provide financial protection to those who are ill, prevent illnesses and premature deaths which worsen levels and conditions of poverty; and enable health systems to be more responsive to people's health care needs. 
 
Achievement of these goals will be through active and empowered engagement of local government units (LGUs), utilizing an interdisciplinary approach in providing and implementing evidence-based recommendations. 
 
Current Projects
 
1)     A-HEALS in partnership with the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization-Philippine Office (WHO) is conducting a study entitled, “ Assessing Access to Prenatal, Delivery and Postpartum Services in the Eastern Visayas Region, Philippines.”
 
The project involves doing household surveys and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping in 115 barangays in 78 municipalities and cities across all the 6 provinces in Region 8, randomly chosen from a list of GIDA (geographically isolated areas) and non-GIDA barangays. The target sample population is 3,450 post-partum mothers.

 
Status:  Twenty six (26) field personnel, all of whom are nurses, were recruited from the 6 provinces of Region 8.  There will be one (1) team per province and each team has members who are also from the towns where the some of the barangays are part of the sample.

 
Last August 26-29, 2014, training was conducted so that these nurses will know how to administer the survey questionnaire and use the GPS devices to be able to determine where the mothers are. As part of the training, the questionnaire and GPS devices were piloted in selected barangays of Tacloban City which are not part of the sampled barangays of the study.  After the pilot, a feedback session was held.  Based on the feedback the questionnaire is being revised.  Actual data collection will commence September 8, 2014.
 
2)     Prescription Project. One of the first activities of A-HEALS was to get all finished researches of ASMPH students and find out which can be published as policy papers and as journal articles. A website is also being developed where policy papers can be uploaded and read.  A public forum is being conceptualized to launch the website.

3)      Schisto Project.  A public health research and intervention protocol focusing on schistosomiasis control in Barangay San Agustin, Municipality of Palo, Leyte province is being developed.  The project hopes to result in an innovative intervention to promote community development and poverty alleviation;
·       Status.  The protocol has been developed and budget proposal has been submitted to Dr. Dayrit.  The project leader is Dr. Harvy Joy Liwanag, who is part of ASMPH’s Pioneer Batch. Initial coordination has been made with DOH Region 8 and a leading expert in the field, Dr. Bayani Blas, whom Dr. Liwanag and Dr. Dayrit visited during the latest trip to Leyte. There is a possibility that the study will be expanded to also include GIS mapping of incidences of schisto in the barangay.