Cing Sian Dal

We are programmed to respond since birth whenever we have conversations. Everybody can hear, but nobody can easily listen. Listening takes energy and attention. It’s more difficult when it involves non-verbal communication because it can express the opposite, for example, smiling while offering condolences. I agree that maintaining eye contact is…[Read more]

It would be quite challenging if a doctor is unwilling to cooperate with you if it takes much time, especially with such frequent follow-up questions. To improve recall, I think memory games like listening to weather forecasts without watching and jotting down what you remember could be more effective in practice.

Recalling details and understanding the big picture would be listening skills that I need to improve because whenever someone told me something important, I could not grasp the context and retain important facts. I simply end such conversations, with “Okay”.

In such situations, I would rephrase the way I understand whether I miss the details or…[Read more]

Normally, my strongest component is empathy without outward display. I could recognize emotions in others, avoid judgments, and convince others to understand others’ emotions sometimes but not respond appropriately most of the time.

To express my empathy requires my expression or interaction with them appropriately when needed, like saying “hi”…[Read more]

Obviously, you are indeed a well-regulated person not only by emotion but also by discipline. Your promptness in discussion proves us all. And, I admire your self-discipline.

When it comes to empathy, I understand it in a different way from recognizing emotions. For me, empathy involves the experience of putting yourself in another person’s…[Read more]

Generally, a government’s system and political dynamics affect the nature of its leaders’ speeches. In Singapore, with its localized politics and de facto one-party state, leaders can deliver speeches focused on a single, unified message. Conversely, in the US, with its complex, internationally engaged political system centered around diverse peo…[Read more]

It is indeed entirely different before and after the coup. Trust has become unrecoverable and broken with no turning back. It all leads to failure in other fields: technology, transparency, transformation, techquity and many more. Everything has fallen apart.

As for Myanmar, following the Feb 2021 coup, at the national level, it seems impossible to have a collaborative team, build transparency and trust among ethnic groups, utilize technology for an intended purpose, provide access to information technology, embrace digital inclusion, and empower digital health transformation.

In terms of team…[Read more]

It is interesting and thought-provoking whether HIV can be a future PHEIC. As far as I researched, although HIV seems to be met with four criteria, the virus is all based on individual behavior (i.e., multiple sex partners, shared needle injection), unlike air-borne disease. Therefore, based on the situation in Myanmar, it’s fair to say that…[Read more]

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?