To protect indigenous peoples’ claim to their cultural heritage, the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM) developed the Philippine Traditional Knowledge Digital Library on Health (TKDL-Health), a digital library of the country’s traditional knowledge and practices on health, healing and diseases.
In an email interview, Dr. Isidro C. Sia, a faculty of the University of the Philippines Manila –the Philippine TKDL-Health program, discussed that the TKDL-Health website helps prevent private entities from laying exclusive claim to the therapeutic practices or medicinal products of indigenous groups by creating proof of ownership for the traditional knowledge.
Dr. Sia cited India’s successful use of their own TKDL website to revoke a US patent on turmeric as an example on how TKDL can be used as evidence for the ownership of the traditional knowledge.
The TKDL-Health (www.tkdlph.com) is a database of information on traditional knowledge on health, illness, and healing gathered from the documentary studies done among indigenous peoples and other cultural communities. To date, there is information on 13,900 medicinal plants.
Through the program, researchers and community members can work together as partners to catalogue the folk traditions in health, and in the process, advocate for the protection of the cultural legacy of the Filipinos.
TKDL-Health is a project supported by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST), the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC), and the Institute of Herbal Medicine (IHM) of the UPM – National Institutes of Health (UPM-NIH).
The Philippine Association of Medical Journal Editors (PAMJE), in cooperation with the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST), calling all designers, graphic artists, students, and professionals to a logo design contest.
PAMJE, a non-governmental organization that strives to raise the quality of medical and health-related journal publishing in the Philippines, is in need of a visual identity, a logo design that would represent and embody the organization.
Organization’s objectives are as follows:
1. encourage collaboration and facilitate communication among medical and health journal editors in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific Region;
2. improve editorial standards and promote professionalism in medical editing through education, self-assessment, and self-governance;
3. facilitate scholarly research writing and peer-review processes through training workshops, seminars and other activities; and
4. foster the continuing education of medical and health journal editors, reviewers, editorial staff, publishers and librarians in the country.
Logo Contest Guidelines:
- The contest is open to all interested parties except to employees of DOST-PCHRD and PAMJE members.
- The logo design must correspond to the PAMJE’s Mission and Objectives.
- Designs must be in JPEG and PSD format with 300 dpi or higher.
- Criteria for judging the logo design includes:
- Uniqueness and Content. A new design that will speak about the organization’s mission.
- Scalability – readability and impact from small and large logo reproduction
- Adaptability for all media use.
- Overall Design. Quality of logo and overall impact.
- The organizer has exclusive ownership, copyright, and control over the use of the original winning design in all forms and formats. The organizers may reproduce in any format; all or any portion of the design, and distribute any reproductions of the logo design.
- Contest winner will receive a cash prize of P10, 000.
- The winning artist will be notified by phone call and email.
- Deadline for submission of entries is until March 28, 2014.
- Entries must be submitted via mail c/o Meychell S. Angoy, PCHRD-DOST, 3F DOST Main Bldg., Gen. Santos Ave., Bicutan, Taguig City or sent through email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it./ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Researchers and editors were at the Taal Vista Hotel, Tagaytay City last January 23-24, 2014 for the 5th National Medical Writing and Peer Review Workshop.
The Philippine Council for Health Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (PCHRD-DOST) in cooperation with the Health Research and Development Consortium Region IV-A (HRDCR IV-A) and the Philippine Association of Medical Journal Editors (PAMJE) conducted the workshop to help and guide health researchers in writing articles for medical journals. It was attended by 44 researchers from Region IV-A and Department of Health (DOH) and 11 editors of different associations, colleges and institutions in the Philippines.
