Research Institute for Tropical Medicine

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) is a research facility of the Philippines Department of Health.

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) collaborated with IHME in the Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC). Lasting from 2007 to 2011, the project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the Gates Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative #13 to develop technologies that permit quantitative assessment of population health status. RITM managed the Philippines PHMRC research site, which collected four data types for the project.

First, through the University of Queensland, researchers at RITM collected a census of all households that was used for triangulation with multiple existing data sources to establish accurate mortality rates for the area. Second, the site collected validated verbal autopsy data on deaths identified through hospital records. Third, the site piloted and collected an electronic household survey on Bohol Island, capturing demographic, mortality, cause of death, and intervention data. Finally, the site collected biological samples from tuberculosis and control patients for analysis as part of research led by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to identify biomarker patterns associated with specific disease states.

In 2011, members of the RITM team began work with IHME to collect data related to costing. This effort is part of both the Disease Control Priorities Network and the Access, Bottlenecks, Costs, and Equity project. 

Data will be collected across a variety of facilities and used to understand the outputs, inputs, and constraints in the Philippine health system. This information will also inform global cost effectiveness and optimal resource allocation estimates of different platform-intervention combinations.

Beginning in summer 2011, RITM has hosted IHME Post-Bachelor Fellows during their research abroad.

Individual collaborators:

• Veronica Tallo
• Marilla Lucero