What’s happening with the HIDE system, ask experts

 

Business groups blamed the HIDE system for stigmatising the industry after it identified its initial list of Covid-19 hotspots.

PETALING JAYA: A deputy health minister and the head of a medical body have questioned the lack of updates about the Hotspot Identification by Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system.

While the government initially published the list of premises flagged as potential Covid-19 hotspots as identified through the HIDE system, which then had to close for three days, there have been no such lists – or reports about the system – for more than a month.

“The HIDE system? It’s hiding already,” former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye told FMT.

“I don’t think they are implementing it anymore, and if they are, I don’t know whether it is for internal use only,” added the PKR Gopeng MP.

While Lee said the system was beneficial and its data should be accessible to the public, he noted that the government received “so much backlash” over it.

Unveiled at a press conference on May 4 by science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin, the system was touted as a way for authorities and business owners to predict potential Covid-19 clusters with the use of big data and artificial intelligence.

Khairy described the system as a “pre-emptive targeted intervention tool” aimed at avoiding costly blanket lockdowns, but the three-day closures of premises on the list soon drew the ire of retailers and mall operators when nearly every mall in the Klang Valley was listed as a hotspot, with business groups blaming the system for stigmatising the industry.

Dr Subramaniam Muniandy, the president of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), told FMT the association is uncertain whether the system is being used anymore.

Calling for more transparency with the HIDE system’s data, he said that generally, data sharing “has been poor”.

“There are many experts outside the health ministry who could provide fresh ideas if they had data on testing numbers and locations, which should be made available to doctors so we can assess risks to our patients and decide on screening more rationally,” he said.

“As to whether the HIDE system should be used, we don’t know their algorithms or data, so it’s hard to say.

“We have not been shown how effectively the HIDE system is being used in the country’s targeted responses managing Covid-19.”

While Khairy previously said that the health ministry’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) manages HIDE analysis, a health ministry spokesman told FMT to refer to the science, technology and innovation ministry when asked to comment on this story.

FMT has reached out to an aide of Khairy for comment. - FMT