Cing Sian Dal

Initially, I believed that antimicrobial resistance was a personal health concern. Now, I learned its broader impact. As you explained, the resistant strains can post significant public health concerns, potentially leading to untreatable infections on a large scale.

The World Health Organization has declared several outbreaks as the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). They are:

(1) H1N1 in 2009 in Mexico

(2) Poliomyelitis declared in 2014 and ongoing

(3) Ebola outbreak in West Africa declared in July 2016

(4) Zika virus epidemic declared in Feb 2016

(5) COVID-19 pandemic declared…[Read more]

Thank you for sharing great ideas. If we have a list of outliers (invalid data groups), we can automate it by flagging it as suspicious information or an error in the reporting system before submission. Otherwise, a person who checks reported data has to spend time more on it, delaying the report.

Thank you for sharing the insightful discussion. We may assume that everything is okay if a patient is not admitted to a clinic or hospital but this could be the opposite – diseased or self-medicating at a chronic stage. There could be several reasons. The follow-up should be implemented after a considerable amount of time.

Despite its high positive predictive value of 94.4% and data quality in the Korean hepatitis B surveillance system, the two key issues for potential improvement are the misreporting of chronic hepatitis B cases and the limited usefulness of the surveillance system.

Misreporting of chronic cases: The complexity of diagnostic criteria (i.e.,…[Read more]

I agree that IT plays a crucial role in outbreak investigation because it’s hard to imagine an outbreak investigation without technology. Manual processes would be error-prone and slow down response times. On the other hand, using software incorrectly can also delay operations, especially with poor user interfaces.

I agree with technical interoperability standards which simplify data sharing. Traditional methods often require manual steps like cleaning, exporting, and filtering data. With standardized data, connecting to data sources becomes as easy as a single click during the outbreaks.

The outbreak investigation involved several steps and health professionals such as clinicians, researchers, and analysts. Information technology could be applied to streamline data collection, analysis, and communication during the outbreak investigation process. There are several unique tools dedicated to one purpose and general…[Read more]

To me, machine learning through data mining is quite an expensive approach to retrieving Covid-19 data. The approach is suitable for a big organization like ProMED, HealthMap etc. My concern is: will health authorities accept the report from online sources?

The short-lived anonymous keys are impressive. While many developers assume permanent storage, the reality is that if both parties remain uninfected for a period, keys are supposed to be safely be destroyed.

Your discussion is comprehensive. While there are different types of surveillance, do you think that all surveillance will end up at laboratory-confirmed surveillance because case confirmation requires lab diagnosis? Or monkeypox can be confirmed without a lab report?

I agree with the fact that case-based surveillance is a recommended option because basically, it is cost-effective and also serves as a point of trace or upcoming route of trace. As for health professionals, the Ministry of Health is a reliable source, and news and social media platforms are easily accessible sources of information for the general public.

Among digital tools used in COVID-19, I like telemedicine the most because it stands out for more significant health outcomes for individual and community health than any other advanced tools. I will detail how telemedicine aids in COVID-19 surveillance and response, and its significance.

During the pandemic, the first challenge in population is…[Read more]

How can surveillance help to detect and control the disease?

Surveillance plays an important role in public health, especially in detecting and controlling diseases by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data related to health events and data sources such as hospitals, facilities, and communities.

After systemically collecting data, the…[Read more]

Sharing the detailed data to a third party is a must “no” even if the benefits of their research outweigh the risks of privacy.

Even if providing the data to them is mandatory, first we have to rationalize the need for data in detail at an individual level for malaria disease prevention and control. Second, we have to question the accuracy of…[Read more]

A short answer to these questions for this HIV case is that I will not disclose the patient’s information to my friend by respecting the patient’s self-determination, beneficence, and non-maleficence, and above all, by following legal and professional obligations to maintain the confidentiality of all patients. However, I would encourage the…[Read more]

The example I provided in the previous discussion primarily stemmed from the startup’s (developers) decision not to fully operate the business after its launch. On the flip side, there is also a need for change management in users/customers even if the developers operate their business.

Regarding awareness, while the startup looked for dental…[Read more]

A group of my dental friends, who were programming enthusiasts, decided to develop the Dental Patient Management System software. It took almost six months, but it failed due to two key reasons: operation, data, and people.

It was built very strong in other areas of design, and cost.

Before the software development started, they researched the…[Read more]

Unlike decision support systems used in developed countries, my experience involved dealing with underserved communities. The decision support system is processed with qualitative and qualitative approaches instead of streamlining with the digital system. The system could not support individual healthcare but it is aimed at supporting public…[Read more]

There might be several reasons behind why the hospitals in the country do not use the ICD standard (or even any kind of standard). It may be their focus on treatment rather than data collection for any kind of purpose. It may be their familiarity and efficiency with their own format that does not hinder their research. It may be due to no data…[Read more]