CerviQ founder, Dr. Bogs Rivera, with AIDOT Global Marketing Manager – Team Leader Mr. Hongsuk Lee and AIDOT Global Marketing Manager – CMO – Ms. Garam Lim attended the first Philippine Cervical Cancer Elimination Movement dubbed “Women Bloom in SolidariTEAL“. #SolidariTEAL
The event was supported by multiple organizations which include: the Philippine Obstetrics and Gynecology Society, Philippine Society of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy, Cancer Coalition Philippines, UHCWATCH, Stratbase ADR, JHPIEGO and many more.
To highlight the event, health magnates Dr. Efren Domingo, President of the Philippine Obstetrics and Gynecology, Past President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of the Philippines, and Dr. Cecilia Llave, a Past President of the Philippine Obstetrics and Gynecology, a Past President of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology of the Philippines, and currently a technical adviser to JHPIEGO, and strong health advocate, Doctor, and Mayor Honorable Dr. Chrislyn Co-Abadilla. Others include Cervical Cancer survivors – Ms. Belen Fernando, Ms. Eden Lucero, Ms. Elena Bautista, President of the Philippine Alliance of Patient Organization – Ms. Karen Villanueva, Cervical Cancer Advocate, and Miss World Philippines Francesca Beatriz McLelland, and other very important guests unknown to us at this time of writing.
In an interview on CerviQ’s advocacy, Dr. Bogs expressed coverage as the fundamental goal in the elimination of cervical cancer in the Philippines. The bottom line is for women to get the HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening. Among the three screening tests, HPV-DNA testing is recommended by the World Health Organization because of its objectivity. But the test is expensive. How could you eliminate a disease if only a few can afford the test?
Why women die from Cervical Cancer in the Philippines can be found in the World Health Organization’s 2021 Philippine Cervical Cancer Report.
This report shows the number of HPV Vaccine jabs given and the number of women screened for Cervical Cancer.
Our HPV vaccination coverage is at 23% First Dose and 5% Complete Dose, while the W.H.O. goal for HPV vaccination is at 90%.
Cervical Screening, on the other hand, the W.H.O. Goal is at 70% – the Philippines’ performance is at a dismal 1% in 2019.
Indeed, we are a long way to go before we could attain the 90-70-90 targets. But this event marks a historical beginning to be united in “#solidariteal”, in the elimination of cervical cancer in the Philippines.
Currently, the primary screening test used in the Philippines is V.I.A. or the Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid.
V.I.A. is a simple, inexpensive, highly sensitive test, but V.I.A. too has a high rate of false positivity or low specificity, plus this test is subjective like that of a Pap-Test. This is why the V.I.A. operators are recommended to have frequent refresher courses.
To complicate things, we lack doctors in the rural communities in the Philippines. So we entrust these processes to midwives where interpretation becomes more of a problem.
To improve these results, at CerviQ, we use a portable digital colposcope device that the midwife operates. In remote communities, the midwife conducts the screening and takes a photo of the cervix – pre and post-acetic acid. The images are sent to the cloud for objective Artificial Intelligence interpretation, and in one minute, the results are out.
Our team has handled over 1200 patients in 2022 despite the COVID pandemic. What we often tell patients “nagpapanty palang po kayo, may resulta na” (While the patient is busy putting up her panty, the screening interpretation results are already in”.)
The images are then forwarded to a trained V.I.A. doctor or an OB-Gynecologist remotely – a process called “tele-diagnosis” or “remote reading.” It is the trained doctor who provides the final diagnosis. In one click, the final report with the cervical images is forwarded to the patient’s email, or printed out, if necessary.
Patients who are found to be V.I.A. positive or suspicious of malignancy are directly referred for confirmatory tests to the OB-Gynecologist who made the diagnosis, to effect treatment and minimize patient loss to follow-up.
At this point, I would like to acknowledge the presence of the Global marketing team, who came to join and support our cause, all the way from South Korea. From the company AIDOT, Mr. Hongsuk Lee, and Ms. Garam Lee.
The more than 1400 patients who benefitted from your Cerviray, our advocacy company CerviQ, and myself – “We thank you for your generosity… “gamsahabnida” AIDOT.
I am certain that if policymakers, health officials, and guests allow AIDOT to help out our country eliminate cervical cancer, most certainly AIDOT has the resources to help us out immensely.
Presently, CerviQ continues to educate and organize preventive screening and vaccination campaigns. This year, in partnership with Coprod Solutions with Ms. Juliet Gomez, we have started the idea of training midwives with the use of the Cerviray AI Colposcope, from as far north – as Luzon, too far south – Cebu City. By doing this, we increase the number of stakeholders participating in cervical screening. Moreso, we are increasing the numbers of stakeholders, in communities where we needed it most. In communities, where there are no doctors, where the only medical professional is either a nurse or a midwife.
I would like to thank the organizers for this enormous opportunity to share with you our solution on how we can help end cervical cancer in the Philippines. Thank you much. #Solidariteal