Tech and Data’s Role in the Covid Pandemic
The whole world was faced with a once-in-a-lifetime Pandemic that affected all of us one way or another. Overnight, all countries had to implement their own systems on managing the crisis at hand. Both the government and private sector developed systems to cope.
Such is the case in the Asia-Pacific where according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (UN OCHA), it is estimated to have 45 million Covid cases as of writing out of 39 countries from APAC. In terms of businesses, Standard & Poor’s forecast the permanent income loss for the Asia-Pacific at $620 Billion as of March 2020 alone. One could imagine how this number would have bloated up already to date.
Tech and Data amidst Pandemic
And while the world slowly learns how to thrive in the “new normal” setup forced upon us, we would like to showcase some Covid-related Health Tech/Data initiatives across APAC doing their part. In the past quarter, the Asia-Pacific Youth Data Society (AYDS) launched our #DataXCovid series featuring remarkable organizations across the Region and their contributions.
- DashboardPH (Philippines)
DashboardPH is a free live dashboard for Filipinos where one can access data on establishments, transport routes, hospitals, and other relevant information on Pandemic with a simple click.
This system started from a conversation founder Wes Coleman had after the implementation of lockdown (similar to “circuit breaker” to others) in their country last March 2020. During this period, a lot of their citizens were asking about the adjusted operation hours or schedules of both transport and businesses as such is needed for those who still had to report for work including our medical frontliners.
Some of the key uses of the platform are transport routes, hospitals, Covid Testing among others.
2. MyEG Health (Malaysia)
MyEG Health is an Artificial Intelligence-powered (AI) Covid-risk profiling system capable of identifying the travel history and health anomalies of its users in partnership with WeChat.
During the onset of the pandemic, the Malaysian government had to identify those citizens which needed to undergo health preventive measures such as quarantines to contain the virus. A quick response solution needed to be implemented — thus the invention of MyEG Health.
What MyEG Health does is to identify the risks of its users on contracting Covid-19 by collecting information of their places visited for the past 2 weeks, proximity to Covid Hotspots (or those with high cases of Covid recorded), and also their heart rate and blood pressure.
3. Smart Hospital e-Health Yoeung programme (Cambodia)
Smart Hospital e-Health Yoeung programme stores patient records and history online, providing convenience for both doctors and their patients.
The surge in the number of patients due to the Pandemic necessitates an efficient mechanism that will store patient information and history for faster treatment procedures. However, Cambodian patients had to bring their medical documents in physical form which were often misplaced and lost. This is what the Programme addressed.
The Programme removed the burden of bringing physical copies of their documents and provided other benefits such as managing their personal health records digitally, scheduling doctor appointments online, getting healthcare tips, and even receiving news directly from their health ministry all at the convenience of their mobile phones.
World Moving Forward Together
While resolving the Covid Pandemic still has a long way to go, we are already slowly seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. This was made possible by collaborations of both the government and private sector in implementing systems, whether it be on vaccination efforts, logistics and financial support, or even tech and data solutions like what we presented!
In terms of vaccination, the rollout of vaccines helps curb deaths brought by the Pandemic. And globally we are at 26.3% relative to the population as of writing. Moreover, we hear of stories of how rich nations extend their donations to those who are in need whether it be through vaccine donations, financial assistance, or other logistics support.
And equally important, we also have tech and data innovations that contribute to Covid management — may it be in digitizing patient information like the Smart Hospital e-Health Yoeung programme of Cambodia, implementing MyHealth risk profiling systems such as in the case of Malaysia, or providing pertinent data and dashboards like transport routes and hospitals like the DashboardPH of Philippines. Together, we hope to see the day where Covid-19 is just another story to tell.
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