Solidum: Well-being of Filipinos 'top priority' in S&T sector

MANILA – Promotion of well-being is among the top priorities of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) under the Marcos administration, Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. said Wednesday.

The DOST programs, he said, are anchored on strategic pillars supporting the President's agenda, prioritizing the desire for every Filipino to have good health.

"Thus, the top pillar is the promotion of well-being, quality of life. We do this through research on health problems, food, nutrition, access to clean water and energy, clean environment," he said during the pre-SONA Bagong Pilipinas briefing over PTV4.

Solidum cited RxBox as an example of solution developed through science and technology.

RxBox, a biomedical device that measure temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, uterine contractions, and electrocardiogram readings of Covid-19 patients.

The device was also helpful during the pandemic since it protects both the patients and health workers by minimizing contacts between them.

RxBox addresses the lack of medical professionals who can be consulted by patients in far-flung areas, he emphasized.

Solidum also noted that it was the government, through the DOST, which funded the prototyping of the RxBox.

The proposal came from the engineering teams of University of the Philippines in Diliman and Manila, he added.

President Marcos wants to scale up the production and commercialization of technologies from universities, he shared.

To do this, he said the DOST will link the technology producers to investors and capitalists.

Many local government units have been asking for units of RxBox, for instance, and linking the producers to investors would help them in the production, he said.

He said universities could also produce startups.

"University researchers and students could have a startup. The DOST has funded over 60 business incubators across the country," he said, adding that this is also a way of fostering wealth creation since more production create more jobs. (PNA)