Taiwan’s “innovative” integration of electronic health records with immigration data enabled its targeted response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Hospital Federation (IHF) said in a report released this month.
An IHF Beyond COVID-19 Task Force report, published on Thursday last week, offered insights into how hospitals can embrace new ways of delivering healthcare while responding to the evolving pandemic, and Taiwan’s response was highlighted to show the importance of sharing information and access.
The National Health Insurance Administration’s (NHIA) strategy to share information through MediCloud — which provides healthcare providers and patients with real-time access to health records — to control the pandemic was a key factor in the nation’s success in capping COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths, the report said.
“Although the system was not initially designed to stop a pandemic, it was nimble enough to be reoriented toward one,” the report said.
To help the system identify potential cases, the NHIA created COVID-19 risk indicators in the MediCloud system related to travel footprints, occupation, contacts and clusters, it said.
By linking MediCloud with border entry and exit data uploaded from the National Immigration Agency, the administration created a centralized, real-time alert system for potential COVID-19 cases, the report said.
“These automatic system alerts allow healthcare providers to obtain patients’ travel history, high-risk occupation, contact history and clustering at mass gatherings in real-time, enabling a more efficient triage and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19,” the report said. “This enhancement to the MediCloud system has been vital to Taiwan’s precision testing strategy, which is efficient in testing a small, but critical number of people, instead of mass testing.”
NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) said that he welcomed the recognition of Taiwan’s strategy as an honor for all healthcare workers in the nation.
The Geneva, Switzerland-based IHF established the task force to help hospitals adopt effective practices and strategies developed during the pandemic, the report said.
The pandemic has accelerated healthcare innovation at an unprecedented pace, toward more effective and agile models of care — a transformation needed in many systems worldwide, the IHF said.
BUSY DAY: The same day the USS ‘Barry’ passed through the Strait, Taiwan was ending its Han Kuang military exercises, while China said it conducted an exercise near Taiwan A US Navy ship on Friday sailed through the Taiwan Strait, marking the ninth time a US military vessel has transited the Strait since US President Joe Biden took office in January. The USS Barry, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, conducted a “routine” transit through the Strait, the US Navy said in a statement, adding that the journey through international waters was conducted “in accordance with international law.” “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the US Navy said. “The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows.” The Ministry
CLOSED FOR DISINFECTION: Two of the three local cases were linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten, while the other case works at a McDonald’s restaurant The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported three new local COVID-19 infections and 11 imported cases, but no deaths. The local cases are two men and a woman aged between 20 and 80 who reside in Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, the CECC said in a news release. Two of them are linked to a cluster infection at a kindergarten in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), said Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman. He said they are both associated with the mother of a kindergarten student, who was earlier confirmed to have
BIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweapons The live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The 37th edition of the annual event officially began after the Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, also known as the Hengshan Command Center, announced the initiation of the five-day live-fire drills. Yesterday’s drills were focused on testing the military’s preservation and maintenance of combat capabilities in the event of a full-scale Chinese invasion. As part of the drills, air force
WELCOME BACK: Foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese can now directly apply for a visa with representative offices overseas, the CECC said Regulations on applications for entry to the nation by foreign spouses or minor children of Taiwanese have been relaxed effective immediately, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported two new local and three imported cases of COVID-19. Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center, said the relaxation meant that such applications would be treated as general cases, instead of special ones that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. “Considering the recent local COVID-19 situation and the needs of foreign spouses and children to visit their family in Taiwan, we are allowing Taiwan’s
RSS