Research and health apps:

collecting and organizing

the data
Romulo de Castro, PhD
Balik Scientist
UP Manila/Mapua/PGC-ELSI

Data

is everywhere and valuable

Who

owns data? Is it usable?

Electronic

Health Record collects and

organizes medical data
Facilitate storage, access and retrieval
Re-use for quality assessment and promote
healthcare improvements

Research

data

Lab notebooks, research publications

Not organized, difficult to re-use
Negative data is not reported
Apps

Quick and easy data collection

Relatively easy to develop
Mobile

Sampung

Halamang Gamot (10HG)

Data warehouse for UP Manilas

Biochemistry/Molecular Biology medicinal
plants research
EboTrac

A lightweight electronic medical record and

contact tracing app for infectious diseases
tracing
Other

useful research tools

1.

Lagundi (Vitex negundo): for coughs, colds,

fever, and relief for asthma

2.

Ulasimang Bato/Pansit-Pansitan (Peperomia

pellucida): effective in treating arthritis and gout

3.

Bawang (Allium sativum): used to reduce

blood cholesterol level

4.

Bayabas (Psidium guajava): antiseptic and

antimicrobial

5.

Yerba Buena (Mentha cordifolia Opiz):

analgesic and used to treat coughs and colds

6.

Sambong (Blumea balsamifera): used to

treat kidney stones and for hypertension

7.

Ampalaya (Momordica charantia): effective in

the treatment of diabetes

8.

Niyog-niyogan (Quisqualis indica L.): used to

eliminate intestinal parasites

9.
10.

Tsaang Gubat (Carmona retusa): for diarrhea

Akapulko (Cassia alata) : for tinea infections,

ringworms and scabies

Objectives:
A

comparative assessment
of the biofunctional activities
of the 10HG in terms of
anti-cancer, antiinflammatory,
immunomodulatory,
prebiotic, anti-microbial,
cytotoxicity, and
genotoxicity potentials.

To

determine the potential

synergistic, neutralizing
and/or antagonistic effects
when combining these
medicinal plants in special
formulations.

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New
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New
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About
Whats

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Resources
Library
News
Msgs
Plants
Animals
Experiments
Data

dictionary

Anti-inflammatory
Immunomodulatory
Prebiotic
Anti-microbial
Anti-viral
Anti-cancer
Cytotoxicity
Mutagenicity
Genotoxicity
Acute

toxicity
Phytochemical
screening

Anti-inflammatory

data fields

More

data collected
from individual
animal experiments

The

10HG app is a scientific data repository and

collaboration tool for medicinal plant researchers
Facilitates data collection
Facilitates data analysis data is aggregated
and organized
Research data is secure, archived but can be
accessed and downloaded anytime
Research data can be easily shared with
collaborators and submitted to funders
App can be shared other researchers only
need to request a login
Mobile it can be used in field work

App for medicinal plants research

Website

development tools

Wix
Squarespace
Weebly
Jimdo

Database

development tools

Zoho Creator
Grubba
Knackhq
Caspio

Tools for creating apps

App

Marvel (iOS, Android)

Invision (iOS, Android)
iOS Sketch Paper
Android Sketch Paper

App

planning tools

development tools

Appery.io
Mobile Roadie
TheAppBuilder
Good Barber

Tools for creating apps

Contact Tracing

Medical

record
Map patients
Trace contacts, map
contacts
Tabulate data

EboTrac functions

10HG

can be re-used for research in pharmacology,

natural products, marine resources, etc
EboTrac can be re-used for other infectious
diseases such as TB, HIV, MERS, malaria, dengue,
etc
I extended EboTrac to create a new medical record
app to be used by independent doctors, rural
healthcare practitioners and small clinics (the
resulting app, UnEMR is much more sophisticated).
I am developing an app that matches the needs of
Philippine host institutions and the expertise of
Filipino scientists who are abroad (potential balik
scientists).

Re-using and extending apps

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

Profiles

REDCap

REDCap

REDCap

REDCap

REDCap

REDCap

REDCap

BSP/PCHRD/DOST
UP

Manila, Mapua, PCG-ELSI (Drs. Badong Caoili,

Lemuel Tayo and Peter Sy)
Drs. Griffin Weber (Harvard University, Profiles) and
Paul Harris (Vanderbilt University, REDCap)
Colleagues at Charles Drew Center for Biomedical
Informatics (Drs. Lola Ogunyemi, Robert Jenders,
Sheba George, Paul Robinson and Jessica Escobedo
(now at NIMHD); Sukrit Mukherjee and Sebastien
Delta)
MSU hosts Dr. Arnold Lubguban and Dean Clowe
Jondonero

Thank You!