Integrating Digital Technology and Public Health to Fight Covid-19: Linking China’s Experiences to the World

For Chang Liu, AHI’s regional director overseeing mainland China, Singapore and Hong Kong, the mission is personal.

Liu is from Wuhan. He grew up on the Wuhan University campus next to East Lake, one of the largest urban lakes in China. Liu recalls an energetic city, with neighbors calling out to one another in the mornings while eating takeout from containers loaded with guozao, Wuhan’s word for the city’s signature breakfasts comprised of a medley of snacks both sweet and savory.

Much of his family still lives the city of 11 million, where scientists believe Covid-19 was first transmitted to humans in a local wet market. His aunt and uncle, in fact, became very ill in mid-January and disappeared inside the hospital system for a couple of days, frightening the family. They have since recovered, but only after 40 days in the hospital.

“Everyone from Wuhan and Hubei Province cried many times, including me,” Liu recalls. “Everyone was devastated. There were so many levels of fear.”

Wuhan’s 76-day quarantine ended April 8, and the city government believes they have now successfully contained the virus, but only after more than 68,000 reported cases and more than 4,500 deaths in Hubei Province, of which Wuhan is the capital.

Propelled by a belief that every day counts, Liu and his team have collected more than 60 examples and case studies highlighting where and how they believe digital technology has an important role to play in pandemic response—ranging from prevention and treatment to contact tracing and social support.

They are also tracking government policies that underscored technological responses to the crisis. With a new grant from The Rockefeller Foundation, they will present their findings directly to healthcare officials in Thailand, India and Myanmar, and to a larger audience through a series of webinars as well as a final report.

Their work shows that data and technology have a role to play in every stage of the pandemic’s existence.

Analysis of data that monitors purchases, attendance at events, even use of parking lots, can tip off health officials to a localized and burgeoning outbreak. Once spotted, AI systems that track airline data and local reporting can predict the virus’s spread.

In Wuhan, technology was already in place to set up delivery of both food and medical supplies. More than 70 percent of China’s population was comfortable with ecommerce before the outbreak began,[1] representing a fair degree of digital maturity. Digital technology was also used to analyze current or potential shortages of everything from beds to PPE.

Telemedicine has an obvious and critical role to play in dealing with a range of patient issues. This includes mental health support. “Fear can cause symptoms,” Liu says. Telemedicine can also educate patients, and point them in the right direction depending on their symptoms. Apps can collect suggested treatments of common Covid-19 symptoms and include doctors’ analysis of those treatments.

Perhaps the most useful telemedicine apps used during the Wuhan outbreak were also connected to public health systems, allowing them to do double duty by both informing patients and giving officials broader insights as they track the disease spread. “The system is triggered by a suspected or confirmed case, and that links directly to the government healthcare system, perhaps at the provincial level,” Liu says.

Liu hopes the details being collected, analyzed and shared by AHI will improve responses to later pandemics or future outbreaks of Covid-19. “Next time, we hope there will be a little less duplication of work,” he says. And with governments more prepared, “the public will know more clearly who they should listen to and what steps they should follow.”