Dr. Romulo de Castro (Jong) is the Director of the Center for Informatics (CFI) at the University of San Agustin (in Iloilo City, Philippines), a consultant of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Medicine Diagnostic Imaging (NMDI) Section and Project Lead for the ATIPAN telehealth project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – eAsia Knowledge Partnership Fund (EAKPF, South Korea), and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) via York University’s Global South AI4PEP Network. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry & Genetics from the University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston) and conducted his postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology (Neuroscience) and The Burnham Institute (Developmental Neurobiology).
His current occupation took him off laboratory research to pursue Informatics via the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, Autism Speaks, Pathway Genomics, 3R Biosystems and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science (where he focused his work on Minority Health and Health Disparities). His current work in Mental Health includes the planning and development of the Philippines’ Mental Health Information System (MHIS), the Negros Occidental Mental Health Information Resource (NOMHIR), requirements analysis for dementia care in the Philippines, addressing the mental healthcare needs of underserved Indigenous and rural communities, and using AI on voice data to develop diagnostic tools for depression and dementia among Filipino patients.
