MANILA, Philippines -- About 60 municipal health officers, public health nurses, midwives, and representatives from the Department of Health have taken part of an Internet-based lecture on newborn screening organized for municipal health officers in Capiz.

While this is not the first time an Internet-based lecture has been organized in the province, Dr. Jarvis Punsalan, provincial health officer,, said this was the first time that he organized one for public health officers.

Put together with help from a non-profit organization, the Institute of Public Health Management (IPHM), Dr. Punsalan said the lecture was conducted using Skype, which allows people to make voice calls via the Internet.

Dr. Punsalan said the idea of conducting the lecture via the Internet materialized after he exchanged ideas with Elmer Soriano of the IPHM who met Filipino doctor Carmen Tapiador, a pediatric endocrinology expert now working in the East Tennessee Children's Hospital.

"It was good timing that the municipal health officers approached me about new born screening," added Dr. Punsalan in a telephone interview with INQUIRER.net. "We really don't have much practical knowledge on how to do [newborn screening]. What we wanted was more of a practical advice."

Dr. Punsalan, 38, has been the head of the provincial health office in the province since 1999.

After exchanging e-mail messages with the Filpino doctor based in the US, Punsalan set up the lecture on the morning of April 4.

He said the time difference allowed Dr. Tapiador, who also happens to have been his classmate in medical school, to conduct the lecture from her home, which is more convenient for US-based Filipino doctors who are often busy during the day.

The setup was a simple one: Skype was used to transmit the lecture via the Internet. Dr. Punsalan used a laptop, which he hooked up to a projector and a microphone. He then invited people to sit and ask questions in a conference hall in his provincial office in Capiz. The provincial health office uses wi-fi connectivity, allowing anyone within the building to connect to the Internet using laptops.

"So I was manning the Powerpoint presentation [that was e-mailed earlier], while she lectured," Punsalan said. "Elmer [Soriano] was somewhere listening and recording the lecture."

Dr. Punsalan said he intends to tap more experts who are willing to conduct Internet-based lectures in the future.

"This has good potential, but the challenge is identifying relevant issues for municipal health officers. There are really very few public health experts who can give lectures to our field officers. Most experts brought by the drug companies are very high-tech. We appreciate technology very much, but to most it remains a novel idea," he said.

The Filipino doctor said the Internet now allows people to tap expertise from anywhere in the world. One of his goals is to establish a database of possible experts who could be asked to give pointers to local public health officers.

"The younger municipal health officers are very excited about technology," he added.