Health - and all issues that accompany it - is viewed quite differently from the provincial perspective. To combat a persistent cough, a person from the big city would most likely reach for a pharmacy grade Guaifenesin; a person from the far provinces however, would instead opt for a herbal preparation proven effective through generations of use.

Following this idea, one may begin to identify the many aspects that affect the chemical vs concoction decision-making process in the primary health care, such as accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability of the cure.

Those aspects however just barely scratch the surface. Should a cheaper variant of the pharmacy cure be developed for the provinces or should a pharmacy drug be developed based on the provincial herbal mixtures? The rise of these questions merits the conduct of research for the development of solutions applicable for both the city and the provincial scene.

Recently, agencies behind the development of the Regional Unified Health Research Agenda (RUHRA) began their provincial consultations to identify the health issues, needs, and concerns of provinces in region IX for 2017 to 2022.

On April 25, local health units in Zamboanga Sibugay gathered to discuss the province's practices with the Departmen of Health (DOH-IX), the Zamboanga Consortium for Health Research and Development (ZCHRD) and the Department of Science and Technology IX (DOST-IX).

The involved agencies focused on Identifying issues and concerns in health systems like governance, financing, workforce, the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT), vulnerabilities and high-risk groups, and the overall health status of the province.

These consultations are scheduled to carry on through Zamboanga City (April 27-28), Zamboanga del Sur (May 2-3), Zamboanga del Norte (May 9-10), and culminate with a regional consultation (May 15-16), which will amalgamate all issues and concerns from the different provinces.

These issues and concerns will be translated into researchable areas / topics, which are then to be combined the RUHRA from other regions around the country, and will be brought up to the national level for a consolidated National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA). (Bon Padayhag, DOST IX Press Release)