April 15, 2021 — Dr. Raymond Francis Sarmiento, Director and Research Assistant Professor of the UP Manila National Institutes of Health’s National Telehealth Center, is among the seven The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardees for 2021.
A world-class doctor and multi-awarded scientist, he became the first and only Filipino to receive formal training in the United States in clinical informatics and public health informatics. Despite lucrative job offers abroad, Dr. Sarmiento came back to the Philippines to develop the country’s first health interoperability software connection, paving the way for higher technologies and efficiency levels in the local health service.
His notable contributions in the field of biomedical and health informatics that have improved the welfare of Filipinos have made him a role model and mentor to others and has put him in a unique position to help improve the Philippine health care system.
According to his Link in profile, Dr. Sarmiento, UP Manila and Philippine General Hospital Chief Data Protection and Privacy Officer and UP College of Medicine’s Medical Informatics Unit Clinical Assistant Professor, finished a National Library of Medicine Fellowship certificate course in Biomedical Informatics at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA in 2011. He served as a Public Health Informatics Fellow in the Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2014-2016. Prior to joining CDC, he completed his medical informatics postdoctoral fellowship at the Office of High Performance Computing and Communications, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, NLM, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.
Dr. Sarmiento received his BS Psychology degree (cum laude) from UP Diliman in 2003 and Doctor of Medicine degree from UP Manila in 2008. He is president of the Philippine Medical Informatics Society (PMIS) and chair of the Health Informatics for Development Working Group of the International Medical Informatics Association.
His current research projects are in the areas of health data science, health information exchange for genetic diseases, standards and interoperability, clinical decision support, telemedicine, and public health surveillance.
Formerly known as The Outstanding Young Filipinos, the TOYM honors the contributions of young Filipinos to their fields and to the nation’s growth and development. This year’s Board of Judges was chaired by Supreme Court Justice Rosmari Declaro Carandang with CNN Philippines Senior Anchor Federico Hizon, Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor Commissioner Randy Halasan, Department of Finance Undersecretary and Synergeia Foundation CEO Milwida Guevara, Interior Crafts of the Islands Inc. President Kenneth Cobonpue, Management Association of the Philippines President Francisco Lim, and UP Manila Chancellor Carmencita Padilla as members.
Cynthia M. Villamor
Published in UP Manila Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 26
