Aside from St. Luke's Medical Center Foundation, Inc., which serves as the hospital's corporate social responsibility arm, there's now St. Luke's Medical Center Health Equity and Research Foundation. This time, the recognized leading healthcare provider in the Philippines goes beyond providing social services and outreach programs to aid the needy.

"It's basically a funding agency for research, and the research has to be focused on health equity," said Dr. Jose Rafael Marfori, who's the assistant vice president for Health Advocacy and Dissemination of SLMC HERE Foundation.

"May foundation na nagbibigay ng pera sa pasyente para kahit sira ang sistema, maka-access ng healthcare. Pero meron ding foundation na kailangang ayusin ang sistema, hindi lang donasyon (There are foundations that give financial aid to patients, so that even if the healthcare system is not working, the patient can still get access to healthcare. But there are foundations that need to fix the system not just through donations)."

Marfori spoke to reporters in a pre-event press conference on the day HERE Foundation was launched on 16 November at the Shangri-La The Fort in Bonifacio Global City. He was joined by his bosses, Dr. Arturo De La Peña, president and chief operating officer, and Dr. Antonio Dans, vice president, as well as his colleague Dr. Jeremie De Guzman, assistant vice president for Research Evaluation and Monitoring.

"Ang objective ng foundation na ito ay tumawag ng mga mag-aaral na makakagawa ng paraan para ang healthcare delivery system ay mai-deliver sa karamihan ng mga tao," De La Peña pointed out. "Pag tapos na ang study, ipe-present namin sa mga major department ng gobyerno (The objective of the foundation is to call on researchers for ways to help the healthcare delivery system reach to most people. At the end of the study, we will present it to major departments of the government)."

For his part, Dans explained, "The keyword is translational research. It's a decade-long term, but it's telling researchers to stop discovering new technology because half of the technology we have, we haven't been able to use."

He then gave an example, "In the Philippines, only a third of hypertensives are receiving hypertensive treatment. Of them, only a third are controlled. But we have dozens of treatments for hypertension. We're not able to use them, especially those with less. St. Luke's HERE Foundation aims to do studies on how we can use existing knowledge and use them for those with less."

His other example underscored the disparity in who gets to avail of PhilHealth benefits: "Mas ginagamit ng mayayaman ang programang designed para sa mahihirap. Bakit? Libre nga ang pang-ospital mo pag mahirap ka, ang layo naman ng ospital sa 'yo. So ang mga nakakagamit 'yung mga may ospital na malapit (Those who have more in life use the healthcare program designed for the poor. Why? While the hospitalization cost is free for the poor, the hospital is far away from where they live. So those who live near hospitals get to avail of the benefits)."

He added, "Kaya kailangan nating gumawa ng research para malaman 'yung mga problema na 'to. Para ang solusyon natin hindi lang para magbigay ng charity (That's why we need to do research to know such problems, so that the solution doesn't only rely on charity)."

De Guzman said the HERE Foundation looks for proposals that measure health inequity; qualify and quantify the health inequity gap in our country; seek to understand the health inequity; and address how the health inequity gap can be reduced.

He made it clear that they will only transact with Philippine institutions, which can have collaborators from abroad but the principal investigator must be Filipino. They will also accept capsule proposals until 6 January 2026. (For the full requirements and other inquiries, email herefoundation@stlukes.com.