When Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Feb. 3 announced that the government would start a rationing system to cope with a mask shortage caused by COVID-19 fears, government agencies had only 60 hours to prepare.
They had to come up with a system that would work swiftly, effectively and equitably, allowing each buyer to purchase the allowed two masks per week.
“To be frank, were it not for the infrastructure upgrades and data management experience accumulated over the years in Taiwan, it would have been very difficult for the National Health Insurance Administration [NHIA] to roll out the mask rationing system so quickly,” said Chang Lin-chih (張齡芝), chief of the NHIA’s information management division.
Photo copied by Huang Chung-shan, Taipei Times
Under the rationing system that began on Feb. 6, anyone can buy disposable surgical masks on Sundays at contracted drugstores and pharmacies, if they present their National Health Insurance (NHI) cards, while on the other days of the week, sales are staggered based on the last digit of the ID number on the buyer’s NHI card.
By scanning the NHI card, pharmacies can quickly see a person’s mask purchasing history, ensuring that the quota of two masks per week per person is maintained.
Designing a system, based on ID card numbers, to prevent congestion at stores was the easy part, Chang said.
The challenge was ensuring that the NHIA’s cloud computing system could handle the additional load during peak sales periods, she said, adding they had to prepare for a scenario similar to a mad rush for online concert tickets.
In one day, the NHIA’s team of engineers set up 20 servers the size of refrigerators to help carry the load, boosting the NHIA’s total number of servers to 32, Chang said.
The engineers then had to make sure that the mask sales would not compromise the main function of the NHIA’s PharmaCloud system, which is to store medical records and give healthcare institutions reliable access to them, she said.
The Pharmacloud system, introduced in 2013, was key to the mask rationing system being put in place.
It was first developed to decentralize healthcare, according to NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋), but to do that, the speed of the virtual private network between the cloud system and medical institutions had to be upgraded, including by changing to a faster fiber-optic network.
Thanks to those upgrades, the NHIA has strong cloud computing capabilities, making it possible for NHI-contracted pharmacies nationwide to track the purchasing history of people buying masks, Chang said.
As sales began, long lines could be seen outside most NHI-contracted pharmacies, and people were being turned away when supplies ran out. Attention then shifted to providing better and more accurate information to the public about where supplies were available throughout the day.
Building on information provided by the government, several private citizens set about creating application programming interfaces (APIs) that would show data on pharmacy locations and mask supplies.
Howard Wu (吳展瑋), one of the first engineers to develop such an API, even before the government’s rationing program was launched, said its purpose was to provide information on mask stocks at convenience stores, where they were being primarily sold at the time.
His API was a hit, but it was not perfect as the information was based on feedback from the public, which could be inaccurate or late, Wu said.
However, when Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), who is responsible for digital technology, released NHI data about pharmacy locations, Wu was able to upgrade his API, using Google Maps to show the locations of pharmacies and whether they had stock of masks.
Wu said his upgraded API received 830,000 hits the first day it was launched.
Since then, others have created about 80 APIs, including Line chatbots, maps and voice assistants, related to the supply of masks and the location of pharmacies, he said.
“The more information people have, the less likely they are to panic about the outbreak,” Wu said.
The collaboration between the government and civic society on the mask rationing program could be used as a model for future endeavors, he said.
“I think this is a huge step for the government and the IT community,” as they have developed a sense of confidence in teamwork between them, based on their respective areas of expertise, Wu said.
The logistics of supplying masks also required some quick and resourceful planning.
State-owned Chunghwa Post Co was charged with delivering 3.96 million masks per day from 24 factories to 6,515 NHI-contracted pharmacies nationwide.
“For the first time, Chunghwa Post is participating in a disease control effort,” said Chen Ching-hsiang (陳敬祥), director of the company’s business and operations department.
Meanwhile, at pharmacies staff have had to deal with the additional workload on a daily basis.
Su Hsiu-jung (蘇秀蓉), who runs Shang-i Pharmacy in Taipei, said that she had to arrive hours before opening every day to package the allocated 250 masks per day so that she could easily sell them two at a time to her customers.
“The workload is heavy, but I think we have a responsibility to do it,” she said.
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