National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) Director General on July 7 attended an annual assembly of the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) and delivered a keynote presentation titled “How the IT system of National Health Insurance Plays a Role in Fighting COVID-19: the case in Taiwan.” The presentation focused on how Taiwan leveraged the single-payer National Health Insurance (NHI) system in managing the pandemic, in particular, the NHI’s cloud-based inquiry system for medical care information has provided a sound foundation to glean insights from data analytics, leading to success in containing the spread of COVID-19. Director General Lee’s keynote presentation garnered accolades from the event’s participants.
Director General Lee Po-Chang said that since the outbreak began in 2020, the breadth and timeliness of information provided by the NHI system were key to Taiwan’s technology-based approach to pandemic containment. Director General Lee highlighted examples of the NHIA integration of resources across various domains and departments, including the optimization of the NHI MediCloud system, the development of an instant warning system, as well as comprehensive collection of TOCC information (travel history, occupation, contact history, group history) of people seeking medical care to avoid gaps in containment measures. In addition, to support the Name-Based Mask Distribution System, the NHI card was used manage distribution of supply, while the My Health Bank app has been improved to allow users to access their medical records.
In addition, to accelerate the detection of telling signs of COVID-19 disease in chest X-rays, the NHIA collaborated with domestic research teams to develop an AI-assisted diagnosis model to provide quick assessments to physicians on whether further treatment is needed to prevent the spread of the pandemic. In response to the current nationwide Level 3 COVID-19 alert, telemedicine has been deployed among health care providers. The addition of new functions to the My Health Bank app will also be explored with the goal of having the app become a personalized solution for pandemic prevention.
[2021-7-9/ Health Media]
