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Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had spread rapidly since late December 2019. Personal protective equipment was essential to prevent transmission. Owing to shortage of face masks, Taiwan government began to implement quasi rationing on February 6, 2020, by allowing each resident to purchase t...

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Autores principales: Yuan, Eunice J., Hsu, Chia-An, Lee, Wui-Chiang, Chen, Tzeng-Ji, Chou, Li-Fang, Hwang, Shinn-Jang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Wolters Kluwer Health 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7199767/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32304508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000325
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author Yuan, Eunice J.
Hsu, Chia-An
Lee, Wui-Chiang
Chen, Tzeng-Ji
Chou, Li-Fang
Hwang, Shinn-Jang
author_facet Yuan, Eunice J.
Hsu, Chia-An
Lee, Wui-Chiang
Chen, Tzeng-Ji
Chou, Li-Fang
Hwang, Shinn-Jang
author_sort Yuan, Eunice J.
collection PubMed
description The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had spread rapidly since late December 2019. Personal protective equipment was essential to prevent transmission. Owing to shortage of face masks, Taiwan government began to implement quasi rationing on February 6, 2020, by allowing each resident to purchase two masks in seven days. Taiwan National Health Insurance Administration offered online data with real-time updates on face mask availability in all contracted pharmacies and selected local health centers. Based on the open data, numerous software applications quickly emerged to assist the public in finding sales locations efficiently. METHODS: Up until March 15, 2020, the Public Digital Innovation Space of Taiwan government had recorded 134 software applications of face mask availability, and 24 software applications were excluded due to defect, duplicate, and unavailability. These applications were analyzed according to platform, developer type, and display mode. RESULTS: Of the 110 valid software applications, 67 (60.9%) applications were deployed on websites, followed by 21 (19.1%) on social networking sites, 19 (17.3%) as mobile applications, and 3 (2.7%) in other modes. Nearly two thirds (n = 70) of applications were developed by individuals, one third (n = 37) by commercial companies, only two applications by central and local governments, and one by a nongovernmental organization. With respect to the display mode, 47 (42.7%) applications adopted map-view only, 41 (37.3%) adopted table-view only, and 19 (17.3%) adopted both modes. Of the remaining three applications, two offered voice user interfaces and one used augmented reality. CONCLUSION: Taiwan’s open data strategy facilitated rapid development of software applications for information dissemination to the public during the COVID-19 crisis. The transparency of real-time data could help alleviate the panic of the public. The collaborative contributions from the grassroots in disasters were priceless treasures.
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spelling pubmed-71997672020-05-06 Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019 Yuan, Eunice J. Hsu, Chia-An Lee, Wui-Chiang Chen, Tzeng-Ji Chou, Li-Fang Hwang, Shinn-Jang J Chin Med Assoc Original Article The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had spread rapidly since late December 2019. Personal protective equipment was essential to prevent transmission. Owing to shortage of face masks, Taiwan government began to implement quasi rationing on February 6, 2020, by allowing each resident to purchase two masks in seven days. Taiwan National Health Insurance Administration offered online data with real-time updates on face mask availability in all contracted pharmacies and selected local health centers. Based on the open data, numerous software applications quickly emerged to assist the public in finding sales locations efficiently. METHODS: Up until March 15, 2020, the Public Digital Innovation Space of Taiwan government had recorded 134 software applications of face mask availability, and 24 software applications were excluded due to defect, duplicate, and unavailability. These applications were analyzed according to platform, developer type, and display mode. RESULTS: Of the 110 valid software applications, 67 (60.9%) applications were deployed on websites, followed by 21 (19.1%) on social networking sites, 19 (17.3%) as mobile applications, and 3 (2.7%) in other modes. Nearly two thirds (n = 70) of applications were developed by individuals, one third (n = 37) by commercial companies, only two applications by central and local governments, and one by a nongovernmental organization. With respect to the display mode, 47 (42.7%) applications adopted map-view only, 41 (37.3%) adopted table-view only, and 19 (17.3%) adopted both modes. Of the remaining three applications, two offered voice user interfaces and one used augmented reality. CONCLUSION: Taiwan’s open data strategy facilitated rapid development of software applications for information dissemination to the public during the COVID-19 crisis. The transparency of real-time data could help alleviate the panic of the public. The collaborative contributions from the grassroots in disasters were priceless treasures. Wolters Kluwer Health 2020-05-04 2020-04-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7199767/ /pubmed/32304508 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000325 Text en Copyright © 2020, the Chinese Medical Association. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic or until permissions are revoked in writing. Upon expiration of these permissions, PMC is granted a perpetual license to make this article available via PMC and Europe PMC, consistent with existing copyright protections.
spellingShingle Original Article
Yuan, Eunice J.
Hsu, Chia-An
Lee, Wui-Chiang
Chen, Tzeng-Ji
Chou, Li-Fang
Hwang, Shinn-Jang
Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
title Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
title_full Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
title_fullStr Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
title_full_unstemmed Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
title_short Where to buy face masks? Survey of applications using Taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
title_sort where to buy face masks? survey of applications using taiwan’s open data in the time of coronavirus disease 2019
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7199767/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32304508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JCMA.0000000000000325
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