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HK wins another Stockholm Challenge Award
Hong Kong's entry "Policing Disease" was named one of the winners yesterday (May 13, Stockholm time) in the Stockholm Challenge Award held in Stockholm, Sweden this year.
The entry from the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau featuring the innovative application of the Police's Major Incident Investigation and Disaster Support System (MIIDSS) in collaboration with the Case Contact Information System of the Department of Health (SARS-CCIS) and the Hospital Authority's eSARS for use in contact tracing of potential SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) carriers during last year's outbreak won the top honour in the Health category.
There were nearly 900 projects from 107 countries competing for this year's awards under six categories, namely e-government, culture, health, education, e-business and environment. This year finalists are from 40 countries representing all continents.
This is the second time that Hong Kong receives the top honour in the Stockholm Challenge Award. In 2001, the then Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau's entry - Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme - won the category in Public Services and Democracy.
The Stockholm Challenge Award, organised annually by the city of Stockholm, is an international award programme in information technology that helped to make the city a hub in a global movement to bridge the digital divide.
A panel of international IT experts would judge and evaluate entries on four criteria - innovation, user need, sustainability and transferability.
Members of the panel were impressed by Hong Kong's innovative application of the IT system of its police force that was used to track down criminals and turned it into a smart tracking system to identify the chain of human transmission of SARS. The MIIDSS identified "hot-spots" of infection which would give rise to suspicion of an environmental factor for the spread of SARS.
The organiser has also invited Hong Kong delegation to set up an exhibition booth to showcase the system at the Global Forum - Networking and Exhibition.
Upon learning the news, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, said in Hong Kong: "The award is a recognition of the innovation and flexibility of the healthcare professionals and civil servants in successfully combining the criminal tracking system with the Hospital Authority's bedside clinical information for tracing close contacts of SARS patients, which was instrumental in turning the tide in our combat against the epidemic last year.
"Without this system, we could not have identified most of the 26,000 contacts of suspected and confirmed SARS patients within the peak period of April last year.
"This timely identification followed by swift isolation action was pivotal to controlling the outbreak."
To deal with an outbreak of SARS with a magnitude and rapidity witnessed in Hong Kong last year, Dr Yeoh recognised the need for, and instructed, the creation of an information technology system which would enable rapid contact tracing.
The development of the e-SARS to capture online and real time information of suspected SARS patients admitted to public hospitals was initiated by Dr Yeoh during the SARS outbreak to speed up contact tracing. The electronic database was then linked onto the Police's MIIDSS to facilitate DH's work in conducting prompt case investigation and swift contact tracing.
Speaking on Hong Kong's success after the prize presentation ceremony in Stockholm, the Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, said the prize once again demonstrated Hong Kong's competitive position as a city of innovation and reinforced its image as a leading digital city in the globally connected world.
"We are delighted to see that Hong Kong's innovation in IT applications, in particular informatics technology, is recognised in the international arena again," she said.
Mrs Yau was the then Secretary for Information Technology and Broadcasting when Hong Kong took its first honour in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2001.
Apart from leading a delegation to Stockholm for the award competition and participating in the Global Forum - Networking & Exhibition, Mrs Yau took time to meet senior Swedish officials responsible for health and food during her stay in Stockholm between May 12-14.
Other members of the delegation were Consultant (Health Informatics) of the Hospital Authority, Dr James Kong; Principal Medical and Health Officer of the Department of Health, Dr Heston Kwong; Assistant Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Miss Daisy Lo; Detective Chief Inspector Alan Chan and Senior Inspector David Wong of the Hong Kong Police.
Besides Sweden, Mrs Yau will also visit Finland and the Netherlands.
Speaking on her visit to Sweden and Finland, Mrs Yau said these two Nordic countries have been among the top in the world in being most web savvy.
"These countries are remarkable for the way in which citizens have incorporated Internet technology in their daily routines and have enjoyed more user friendly and efficient public services including health care services," she said.
Mrs Yau's visit to Finland is at the invitation of the Finnish Government to share Hong Kong's experience in communicable disease prevention, in particular avian influenza and SARS.
"Hong Kong has invested heavily on capital works, human resources and relevant hardware and software on the prevention and control of communicable diseases to live up to the expectation of a safe city," she said.
The visit also aimed to obtain the latest development in Europe on IT application in surveillance and the capture of syndromic data so that Hong Kong could evaluate how best it should set up its communicable disease information system (CDIS), she added.
Mrs Yau will depart Stockholm in the morning of May 14 to continue her visit itinerary to Finland and the Netherlands to meet senior officials of relevant ministries and academics with expertise in various disciplines, including communicable diseases and food hygiene. She will return to Hong Kong on May 19.
Ends/Friday, May 14, 2004
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