A world influenza outbreak that could kill millions of people is a scenario waiting to happen, say medical experts.
Globalisation, speedy air travel and more face-to-face contact could make that scenario a reality (see sidebar).
But there is an under-appraised saving grace - or at least a tool that could impede the speed of transmission of bugs like those of the avian flu or bird flu.
IT can play a 'tremendous and essential' role, said managing director of the Asian Risk Management Institute, Mr Marc Ronez, because technology can minimise face-to-face contact, which is how a virus spreads.
Work practices can be organised to integrate technology so people can use teleconferencing or video conferencing, while workers can log on to work from remote locations.
'A big part of absenteeism at work will be because people are scared, quarantined or have to take care of their children because schools are closed,' said Mr Ronez.
It will be an organisational shift.
Even those in the manufacturing sector may have to look at using online transactions or IT to improve communications with headsets, for example, so that operators do not come into contact.
Certainly, several IT players are all ready for red alert.
For example, IBM has put in place its own Contingency Planning Assessment plan, which covers a wide spectrum of areas such as human resource planning, monitoring of employees and impact on supply chains. It will go as far as working with the Government to ensure that work goes on as normal.
During the financial industry's preparation exercise in May, homegrown DBS Bank made sure its employees were prepared by testing and fine-tuning its business continuity practices.
It has alternative sites and back-up systems, in case any one of the sites or systems go down. And all its self-service banking facilities will be able to handle the additional load, albeit with some 'bottlenecks' or 'slowness in response', said its spokesman.
Internet service providers here assure users that their infrastructures will be able to withstand the sudden loading, as more people work from home during a critical period.
Senior vice-president of StarHub's Internet Protocol services Thomas Ee said that residential broadband networks were made such that 'home connections are often comparable to office connections in terms of quality'.
SingTel's spokesman Chia Boon Chong also said that the company's network was designed to handle peak traffic load, judging from evening time on regular days 'when most customers surf the Internet'.
This traffic also tends to be more data intensive, he said.
'We do not anticipate the overall traffic load to change much if customers were to access the Internet more frequently during the day,' he said.
'In fact, traffic from office-related data may be less intensive than Internet surfing data.'
Currently, the Asian Risk Management Institute is unsure if avian flu will be the flu strain that starts a pandemic, said Mr Ronez.
But if companies and people are to wait till it strikes, 'it will be too late', he said.
'You cannot put in place backup system protection overnight.'
Go to www.arimi.org for further information on the Asian Risk Management Institute.
SingHealth: Using tech to track and trace
HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS LIKE SingHealth will face a dual challenge during a pandemic.
It will have to sort out staffing and operations constraints - just like other companies would. It will also be stretched to the limit because it will have to cope with an even larger influx of 'customers' than usual.
Its previous experience with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) has made it even more prepared for potential pandemics, said SingHealth's group chief technology officer Fong Choon Khin.
He told Digital Life that its preparations has gone as far as having an extra e-mail server because e-mail traffic increased when the hospitals in its stable were 'compartmentalised' during the crisis.
The cluster has three hospitals, including Singapore General Hospital and Changi General Hospital, five national specialty centres and a number of polyclinics.
Mr Fong said: 'Without the use of IT or communications technology, it will be very difficult to deal efficiently with a crisis like a flu pandemic, especially if [the job] has to be done manually.'
He added that he was 'hopeful' the cluster's IT systems were adequate for the sudden influx of patients but would develop other IT systems 'beyond our anticipation now, as the situation arises'.
One of the systems SingHealth has put in place is its image management system.
Besides having patients' medical history and records digitised, radiology images such as X-rays have also gone electronic.
Doctors can access these images concurrently at all wards, outpatient clinics, emergency departments and even inside operating theatres.
This means that instead of porters physically transporting hardcopy films from laboratories to doctors, which could increase face-to-face contact and disease transmission, images can be viewed in one button click.
Project Vega will also be useful during a pandemic.
This wireless monitoring and tracking system is now in its pilot phase.
Patients are tagged with a ThermoSensor (above), a coin-sized gadget which measures temperature automatically and continuously.
The temperature is transmitted wirelessly to a central server at regular intervals using RFID or radio signals.
Staff can monitor temperatures remotely, which minimises contact with patients.
At the same time, patients and staff also carry credit card-sized devices called SmartTags. When they move about in the ward, their location is tracked and uploaded automatically via Wi-Fi.
In an infectious disease outbreak, people who have come close to one another can be immediately tracked.
Quick tracing means that the potential exposure of the disease to non-infected persons is reduced.
- Serene Luo