In supporting the country’s efforts to fast-track economic recovery from the pandemic, the Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (ASITE) of the Asian Institute of Management’s (AIM) is taking on a central role in the National Economic Development Authority’s (NEDA) Project CONNECT — an initiative to develop a system that will enable the various contract tracing apps being used in the Philippines to automatically link to government’s testing portals.
The program was officially unveiled on May 18, 2021 through a virtual signing ceremony for the memorandum of agreement between the Aboitiz Group, NEDA, and the local government of Pasig City, where the is being piloted. Main signatories were Aboitiz Foundation President and COO Maribeth Marasigan, NEDA Undersecretary Mercy Sombilla, Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, and ASITE Chair Dr. Chris Monterola.
One life saved in addressing this gap in the pandemic response is more than enough reason for Aboitiz to be part of this initiative—true to our commitment of advancing business and communities, by living our core value of innovation. We are a firm believer that data science is a strong foundation that we can rely on as our country continuously fights this pandemic.
– Maribeth Marasigan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Aboitiz Foundation
Meanwhile, NEDA Usec. Mercedita Sombilla commended the agency’s partners in the development and implementation of the program and emphasized the importance of strong collaborations between the public and private sectors in filling in gaps to address the needs of the country.
“We thank our data scientists from ASITE for volunteering their expertise, the city government of Pasig for leading the charge in its implementation, and the Aboitiz Foundation for providing us with the resources to take this idea into reality. Partnerships such as this show that we can overcome COVID through stronger collaboration and we are hopeful that this simple solution can aid in bringing down our cases,” she said.
As one of the country’s pioneering institutions in data science and innovation, ASITE was commissioned by NEDA for the development of a proof of concept that leverages its data science capabilities to better manage, predict, and optimize the insights collected from the national contact tracing database.
“The main idea is to connect the Department of Health’s data of infected individuals with contact tracing apps, automatically. By doing so, we can identify the individuals that are compromised if they are in the same establishment,” explained ASITE Chair, Dr. Chris Monterola. “We can then prioritize on contact tracing the individuals based on the length of contact, the nature and place of contact, and susceptibility to become seriously ill.”
He further emphasized how age and gender plays a very crucial role in susceptibility to being seriously ill with the virus, as well as one of the unique features of the system in identifying an individual’s potential to be a superspreader.
“The potential of a superspreader can be a thousand-fold more potent, more dangerous than a regular spreader. By automating [the contact tracing], we can reduce the time needed to isolate the compromised individuals by at least 1.5 days and this can reduce the total number of cases by 50.7%, if about 75% of the population is complying,” he added.
The proof of concept has already received approval from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to be piloted in a consortium of cities across Metro Manila. Through this, the data collected from a city’s official contact-tracing apps can be consolidated to the national database in order to better guide local and national agencies into taking the appropriate measures to counter COVID.
“By integrating these two databases, we can optimize our contact tracing efforts by analyzing the mobility data at the contact tracing apps to determine who are the potential contacts of COVID-19 positive cases based on the COVID Document Repository System (CDRS) of the DOH. We well then notify the potential contacts through automated text messaging,” Sombilla explains.
We thank our data scientists from ASITE for volunteering their expertise, the city government of Pasig for leading the charge in its implementation, and the Aboitiz Foundation for providing us with the resources to take this idea into reality.
– Usec. Mercy Sombilla, NEDA
Furthermore, the program allows for the seamless execution of contact tracing as soon as test results are released to prevent further transmission, execute granular lockdowns, and optimize targeted testing in identified hotspots.
The NEDA-led contact-tracing program was launched on May 1 with Pasig City as the pilot LGU, before being rolled out in the cities of Mandaluyong, Valenzuela, and MarIkina. The agency intends to scale the initiative to cover LGUs and private companies nationwide.
Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto said that while around 2.6 million individuals are already currently on the SafePass app, the city recognizes the need to improve its contact tracing and sees further use of technology and data analytics to better fight COVID-19.
To the Aboitiz Foundation, thank you for your generosity, for your kind hearts, and your willingness to partner with the LGUs like Pasig City. I know it’s not only Pasig that you are partners with but you have done so much for the community, for our nation and I just want to thank you for that.
–Vico Sotto, Mayor, Pasig City LGU
Aboitiz Foundation donated PHP2 million to fund the project’s implementation, including pilot testing, SMS blasts, and development of an API (application programming interface), which is essential in increasing contact ratio from 1:2-3 persons traced to an ideal 1:30-37.
Since 2018, ASITE has been building the next generation of world-class data scientists in response to the demand for skills and talent in this field. Its Master of Data Science program is the first in the Philippines. The school was established through a USD10 million grant from the Aboitiz Group.
