Universal Healthcare in the Philippines Today
Affordability, Accessibility, and Quality of Healthcare are Top Pain Points of Filipinos
Affordability
Medical Expenses in the Philippines is the 2nd most expensive in Southeast Asia
Accessibility
Less than 50% of barangays have a health center.
Quality
Doctor to patient ratio of 0.4:1,000 is far from WHO recommended ratio of 1:1,000
Our Team
Mario Domingo, along with some of the country’s top tech-philanthropists, founded the DARC Foundation in 2019. Together, they envisioned a future where every Filipino has access to quality healthcare. DARC’s founders bring together their expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Cloud Services, to create impactful innovations for the country.
Mario Domingo
Founder & Chairman
Mario Domingo is the Founder of several successful Artificial Intelligence Technology companies in Life Sciences, Media, Consumer and Digital Enterprises based in Singapore and the Philippines. He is the Director of the Ateneo Institute of Digital Enterprises. He spent 10 years at Globe Telecom, Inc. where he led the digital business transformation, product design and creation. He spent 19 years in programs and projects for defense, manufacturing and information technology in the USA. Mr. Domingo has two Master’s Degrees in Finance and Applied Economics from the University of Southern California, USA and took his Artificial Intelligence Course at the MIT Computer Science AI Lab.
Earl Qua
Director
Earl Lawrence Qua is Chief Executive Officer for Quantum Insights and Analytics, Inc. and Vice President for Original Design Manufacturing for Ionics, Inc (ION.PS), a leading IoT platforms and solutions designer and manufacturer for multinational consumer electronics and industrial companies. As President of the Electronics Industry Association of the Philippines Incorporated (EIAPI) he led the establishment of the Electronics Products Development Center (EPDC) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and is currently serving as its Project Head.
Earl also worked in Marvell Technologies Inc. in Santa Clara, CA where he led Semiconductor Product Development in Marvell’s Power Management Group and Wireless Communications Group. He has a BA in Economics and Physics from Occidental College, CA, USA, and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Babson College, MA, USA. He has completed the SCPD Program in Electronic Circuits at Stanford University and the Owner/President Management (OPM) Course at the Harvard Business School.
Dennis Mendiola
Director
Dennis Mendiola founded Chikka Asia which became the Philippines most influential Mobile and Internet applications provider from 2000 until 2008 when it was acquired by PLDT-Smart Communications. Retained by Smart as Chikka’s Chief Product Development Officer, Dennis led the development of PowerApp, the world’s first mobile app to dispense bite-sized mobile data at precise speeds and bandwidths depending on intended use. The model has since been emulated by other global telco carriers. Mendiola is the author of an extensive portfolio of patents around some of the most useful and widely deployed mobile and Internet applications and interfaces. Mendiola also served as Governor of the Philippine Red Cross in 2008 and remains its Mobile and Internet technologies consultant. He graduated from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania double summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering and Finance and took his MBA at Harvard University.
Cesar Buenaventura
Director
Cesar Buenaventura serves as a Managing Partner at Buenaventura, Echauz and Partners (BEP) Financial Services. He served as Chairman and CEO at Shell Group of Companies in Philippines from 1975 to 1990 and continues to be the Lead Director. He serves as Vice Chairman of DMCI Holdings, a leading conglomerate in construction, power, and mining and is a Director of several other listed companies. He is the Founding Chairman of Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc.
Chito Bustamante
Director
Chito Bustamante is the CEO of VOXP Technologies & Innovations, a leading IT Software Development and Services Company with a talented and dedicated team since 2001. Currently, he is also the COO of Quantum Insights and Analytics, a data science company that leverages big data best practices by developing capabilities with deep machine learning and artificial intelligence. Chito was CEO of Chikka Asia from 2008 to 2016, which was acquired by PLDT-Smart Communications. He is also a mentor and advisor to various tech startups in the Philippines.
Jason Albia
Lead Researcher (Consultant)
Jason is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Physics, University of the Philippines Los Baños. He is a multidisciplinary scientist with a wide experience in experimental and computational research projects. For the past years, he led the development of several wide-ranging AI-driven R&D projects for healthcare and media industries. He was a Sr. AI Engineer and Lead Technical Consultant for ABSCBN Corp and Digenomix, Inc., respectively.
Jason earned his bachelor's degree in Applied Physics in UP Los Baños and Masters of Science in Materials Science and Engineering in UP Diliman. He has garnered numerous awards: One UP Faculty Grant Award for Outstanding Teacher and Researcher (Computational Modelling) (2019-2022), UPLB Outstanding Researcher Award in 2018, UP Centennial Professorial Chair (2017), UP International Publication Awards and several research grants.
Julianne Vilela
Consultant
Julianne is currently a University Researcher at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Her research focuses on understanding plant and animal genome as well as elucidating the molecular mechanisms of inter-species pathogenesis of viruses. Throughout her career as a researcher she has been part of various successful R&D efforts funded both by government and private institutions.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Biotechnology and Master of Science in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Medical and Life Sciences major in Virology at the Lancaster University, United Kingdom. Her PhD study aims to reduce the impact of viral pathogens on poultry production through the development of new and improved vaccines.
Joverlyn Gaudillo
Data Scientist / Associate Researcher
Joverlyn is a University Research Associate II under a DOST-funded program entitled “Early CANcer Detection in the LivEr of Filipinos with Chronic Hepatitis B Using AI-Driven Integration of Clinical and Genomic Biomarkers (CANDLE Study)” with UP Manila and UP Los Baños as implementing agencies for Project 1 and 2, respectively. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics in UP Los Baños. Joverlyn pursues computational researches, specifically equipping herself with data-driven techniques to develop pragmatic and scientific solutions. Prior to her current career, she was a Data Scientist and AI Associate Engineer at Digenomix, Inc. and ABSCBN Corp, respectively.
Lei Rigi Baltazar
Data Scientist / Associate Researcher
Lei is currently a University Research Associate II at a DOST-funded program entitled "Early CANcer Detection in the LivEr of Filipinos with Chronic Hepatitis B Using AI-Driven Integration of Clinical and Genomic Biomarkers (CANDLE Study)" implemented by the University of the Philippines Manila and University of the Philippines Los Baños. She is a versatile scientist specializing in computational data-driven techniques to tackle healthcare, environmental, and media research problems. She received her bachelor's degree in Applied Physics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Over the past few years, she has worked at Digenomix, Inc. and ABS-CBN Corp as a Data Scientist and an AI Associate Engineer, respectively.
Mojhune Gabriel
Manzanillo
Data Scientist / Junior Researcher
Gabriel is currently a Data Scientist in DARC Labs. His work covers design, installation, and management of the DARC Labs high-performance computing facility – a hybrid of GPU and CPU for big data ingestion, processing, and other data-driven projects. Concurrently, he is part of the research project which aims to integrate several artificial intelligence (AI)-driven models to detect early detection of cancer. For this project, he specializes in utilizing deep learning convolutional neural networks for image detection.
He is a graduate of the B.S. Applied Physics program at the University of the Philippines Los Baños with a specialization in Computational Physics (Climate Modelling using Machine Learning). He had his undergraduate internship at the Analytics, Computing, and Complex Systems Laboratory at the Asian Institute of Management. He also worked as a Data Engineer (Consultant) in an Election Analytics project for ABSCBN Corporation during the 2019 election.
Contact us.
Tower A 31Q The Pearlplace Condominium,
Drive, San Antonio, Pasig City, 2nd District,
National Capital Region, 1606