Enhancing Data Linkage to Break the Chain of COVID-19 Spread: The Taiwan Experience.

Digital technology has been widely used in health care systems and disease management, as well as in controlling the spread of COVID-19. As one of the most successful countries in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan has successfully used digital technology to strengthen its efforts in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan has a well-established National Health Insurance System (NHIS), which provides a great opportunity to develop a nationwide data linkage model in an agile manner. Here we provide an overview of the application of data linkage models for strategies in combating COVID-19 in Taiwan, including NHIS centralized data linkage systems and "from border to community" information-driven data linkage systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we discuss the dual role of digital technologies in being an "enabler" and a "driver" in early disease prevention. Lastly, Taiwan's experience in applying digital technology to enhance the control of COVID-19 potentially highlights lessons learned and opportunities for other countries to handle the COVID-19 situation better.

Importance-Performance Analysis of Personal Health Records in Taiwan: A Web-Based Survey.

BACKGROUND: Empowering personal health records (PHRs) provides basic human right, awareness, and intention for health promotion. As health care delivery changes toward patient-centered services, PHRs become an indispensable platform for consumers and providers. Recently, the government introduced "My health bank," a Web-based electronic medical records (EMRs) repository for consumers. However, it is not yet a PHR. To date, we do not have a platform that can let patients manage their own PHR. OBJECTIVE: This study creates a vision of a value-added platform for personal health data analysis and manages their health record based on the contents of the "My health bank." This study aimed to examine consumer expectation regarding PHR, using the importance-performance analysis. The purpose of this study was to explore consumer perception regarding this type of a platform: it would try to identify the key success factors and important aspects by using the importance-performance analysis, and give some suggestions for future development based on it. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Taiwan. Web-based invitation to participate in this study was distributed through Facebook. Respondents were asked to watch an introductory movie regarding PHR before filling in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was focused on 2 aspects, including (1) system functions, and (2) system design and security and privacy. The questionnaire would employ 12 and 7 questions respectively. The questionnaire was designed following 5-points Likert scale ranging from 1 ("disagree strongly") to 5 ("Agree strongly"). Afterwards, the questionnaire data was sorted using IBM SPSS Statistics 21 for descriptive statistics and the importance-performance analysis. RESULTS: This research received 350 valid questionnaires. Most respondents were female (219 of 350 participants, 62.6%), 21-30 years old (238 of 350 participants, 68.0%), with a university degree (228 of 350 participants, 65.1%). They were still students (195 out of 350 participants, 56.6%), with a monthly income of less than NT $30,000 (230 of 350 participants, 65.7%), and living in the North Taiwan (236 of 350 participants, 67.4%), with a good self-identified health status (171 of 350 participants, 48.9%). After performing the importance-performance analysis, we found the following: (1) instead of complex functions, people just want to have a platform that can let them integrate and manage their medical visit, health examination, and life behavior records; (2) they do not care whether their PHR is shared with others; and (3) most of the participants think the system security design is not important, but they also do not feel satisfied with the current security design. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the issues receiving the most user attention were the system functions, circulation, integrity, ease of use, and continuity of the PHRs, data security, and privacy protection.

Metadata Correction: Importance-Performance Analysis of Personal Health Records in Taiwan: A Web-Based Survey.

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Long-Term and Interactive Effects of Pay-For-Performance Interventions among Diabetic Nephropathy Patients at the Early Chronic Kidney Disease Stage.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major health problem worldwide because of the aging population and lifestyle changes. One of the important etiologies of CKD is diabetes mellitus (DM). The long-term effects of pay-for-performance (P4P) on disease progression have not been thoroughly examined.This study is a retrospective population-based patient cohort design to examine the continuous effects of diabetes and CKD P4P interventions. This study used the health insurance claims database to conduct a longitudinal analysis. A total of 32,084 early CKD patients with diabetes were extracted from the outpatient claims database from January 2011 to December 2012, and the follow-up period was extended to August 2014. A 4-group matching design, including both diabetes and early CKD P4P interventions, with only diabetes P4P intervention, with only early CKD P4P intervention, and without any P4P interventions, was performed according to their descending intensity. The primary outcome of this study was all-cause mortality and the causes of death. The statistical methods included a Chi-squared test, ANOVA, and multi-variable Cox regression models.A dose-response relationship between the intervention groups and all-cause mortality was observed as follows: comparing to both diabetes and early CKD P4P interventions (reference), hazard ratio (HR) was 1.22 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.50) for patients with only a diabetes P4P intervention; HR was 2.00 (95% CI, 1.66-2.42) for patients with only an early CKD P4P intervention; and HR was 2.42 (95% CI, 2.02-2.91) for patients without any P4P interventions. The leading cause of death of the total diabetic nephropathy patient cohort was infectious diseases (34.32%) followed by cardiovascular diseases (17.12%), acute renal failure (1.50%), and malignant neoplasm of liver (1.40%).Because the earlier interventions have lasting long-term effects on the patient's prognosis regardless of disease course, an integrated early intervention plan is suggested in future care plan designs. The mechanisms regarding the effects of P4P intervention, such as health education on diet control, continuity of care, and practice guidelines and adherence, are the primary components of disease management programs.