COVID-19 Close Contact Management: An Evolution of Operations Harnessing the Digital Edge.

Autor: Seah BZ; Medical Operations and Policy Centre, Ministry of Health, 1 Maritime Square, #11-18 HarbourFront Centre, 099253, Singapore, Singapore. benjaminseahzq@gmail.com., Jailani RI; Health Alert Task Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore., Law PY; Health Alert Task Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore., Teo RS; Health Alert Task Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore., Chong XY; Health Alert Task Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore., Law O; Medical Operations and Policy Centre, Ministry of Health, 1 Maritime Square, #11-18 HarbourFront Centre, 099253, Singapore, Singapore., Chong SJ; Medical Operations and Policy Centre, Ministry of Health, 1 Maritime Square, #11-18 HarbourFront Centre, 099253, Singapore, Singapore.; Health Alert Task Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of medical systems [J Med Syst] 2023 Feb 14; Vol. 47 (1), pp. 24. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 14.
DOI: 10.1007/s10916-023-01918-3
Abstrakt: Singapore, like many other nations globally, had to contend with significant caseloads arising from the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This paper focuses on using technology as an intervention for pandemic management. With scant scientific evidence on effective medications and vaccinations (i.e., pharmaceutical interventions) initially, disease containment strategies predominated during the early phases. Non-pharmaceutical interventions were critical in slowing disease transmission and preventing public healthcare institutions from being overwhelmed. Such interventions could be broadly divided into case-based interventions (e.g., contact tracing and quarantining of close contacts) and population-based measures (e.g., mask use and social distancing). The paper describes Singapore's experience in the operational implementation of contact-based interventions, and illustrates how harnessing the digital edge enabled fast, accurate, resource-efficient, and flexible execution of ground operations. Singapore applied digital technology and developed an integrated system to facilitate issuance and acknowledgement of quarantine orders, submission of COVID-19 test results, and collection of antigen rapid test kits at the population level. Data was obtained from this proprietary centralised, automated platform. The paper demonstrates how such simple, yet elegant systems could have a direct impact on disease transmission in an outbreak setting and on population health. Moving forward, it is recommended that technology and digital solutions feature prominently in work process designs beyond COVID-19 such as in the management of emerging infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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