The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM; Filipino: Surian sa Pananaliksik ng Medisinang Tropikal) is a health research facility based in Muntinlupa, Philippines. The primary function of RITM has been two-fold: to undertake research in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tropical diseases of public health importance and to produce vaccines for the control of vaccine-preventable diseases. To be relevant to the national health policy and strategy, the research efforts have been directed towards the development of new diagnostic techniques as well as effective and efficient strategies for the control of infectious and/or tropical diseases. Its research efforts are being disseminated through local and international publications, presented in various scientific meetings and submitted to the health policy-making bodies.
The RITM is tasked by the Philippine Department of Health and the Philippine Government to supervise, plan, and successfully implement research programs to prevent and to control prevailing infectious and tropical diseases in the Philippines. This includes research involving the advancement of vaccines and medications used by medical professionals, such as physicians, nurses, and medical technologists, that they utilize whenever patients they handle are under the diagnosis and treatment of infectious and treatable and curable diseases. The institute also trains medical and health workers in order to be further educated in their fields in relation to the management of tropical infectious diseases. Formulation of plans and research projects involving biological products proposed and currently utilized by the Philippine Department of Health are also covered by the functions of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, including the manufacture of biologic products and vaccines.
With its mission to protect Filipinos against infectious diseases through the conduct of globally competitive research, training, clinical and diagnostic services and production of biologicals. RITM provides state-of-the-art facilities dedicated to research, training, clinical care, and biologicals manufacturing. It houses laboratories, hospital facilities, biologicals production facilities, isolate bank, training center, and dormitory.
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READ MORE: RITM has opportunities available to apply
Documentary Requirements
- Application Letter
- Properly accomplished Personal Data Sheet (PDS) with Work Experience Sheet.
- Copy of Diploma.
- Copy of Transcript of Record.
- Certificate of Employment (if required based on QS).
- Certificate of Training ( (if required based on QS).
- Copy of valid NBI Clearance.
- IPCR (if with previous contract with RITM).
- IF PRACTICE OF PROFESSION
- Copy of PRC Board Rating
- Copy of PRC Board Certificate.
- Copy of PRC License (front and back at least 3 months prior to expiration).
Downloadable forms:
IMPORTANT: You may now download the RITM Recruitment Forms via the RITM Cloud. Click HERE to access the forms. Please be informed that ONLINE APPLICATIONS for PERMANENT POSITIONS and CONTRACT OF SERVICE /JOB ORDER are NOW ACCEPTED. Only those with complete requirements shall be processed. Interested applicants may submit their requirements to: hrd@ritm.gov.ph
Online applicants for permanent positions shall use the Item Code No. of the position as subject of his/her application.
History
By the early 1980s, negotiations between "mutually interested parties" within the governments of the Philippines and Japan had been going on for several years, and reached finally reached a breakthrough in 1981 in the form of a grant-in-aid agreement under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). With the help of this Japanese grant, a US$8 million facility was constructed within the Ministry of Health's Bureau of Research and Laboratories compound in Alabang, Muntinlupa. Malacanang palace then issued Executive Order (EO) 674 on March 25, 1981, formally authorizing the Philippine Ministry of Health to establish a research facility to implement a basic and applied research program for tropical medicine in the Philippines, pushing both for health advancement and for medical research. The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) had its humble beginnings soon after the culmination of over a decade of negotiations between the governments of the Philippines and Japan for the establishment of a tropical medicine research center. RITM was tasked to plan and implement research programs for infectious and tropical diseases. The original building facilities of RITM, which included a laboratory wing and a 50-bed hospital for patients with infectious diseases requiring tertiary care, were inaugurated on April 23, 1981. In 1984, RITM’s facilities were expanded to include a building for animal research and laboratory animal breeding. Through another grant-in-aid from the Japanese Government, the RITM Center for Training in Tropical Infectious Diseases was established for in-country and third country training activities in 1989. In November 2000, the Biologicals Production Service (BPS) of the Department of Health (DOH) was formally merged with the RITM. The BPS was established as a vaccine laboratory in the country, with the smallpox vaccine as its first product. The vaccine laboratory was later expanded to produce other vaccines as well as anti-sera. The merger of RITM and BPS gave rise to a more comprehensive and logical approach in the control of infectious and/or tropical diseases through research and biologicals production. In 2000, RITM was designated as the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for dengue, influenza, enteroviruses, measles and other viral exanthems, polio, tuberculosis and other mycobacteria, bacterial enteric diseases, mycology, emerging diseases, malaria and other parasites. It is also the confirmatory testing laboratory of blood donor units for the National Voluntary Blood Services Program; the coordinating center for antimicrobial resistance surveillance; a provider of the National External Quality Assurance for Bacteriology, Parasitology and Mycobacteriology; and a WHO-recognized National Influenza Center. Thirty years after its establishment, RITM has emerged as a center for excellence in health research using the tools available in epidemiology, clinical medicine supported by microbiology, parasitology, public health, virology, immunology, molecular biology, pathology and behavioral/social science. To be relevant to the national health policy and strategy, the research efforts of the Institute have been directed towards the development of new diagnostic techniques, and effective and efficient strategies for the control of infectious and/or tropical diseases. Its research efforts are being disseminated through local and international publications, presented in various scientific meetings and submitted to the health policy-making bodies.