The Department of Science and Technology officially acquired today a COVID-19 monitoring tool developed by the Ateneo de Manila University Computing Competency and Research called the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance Using Spatio-Temporal Ediomological Modeler (FASSSTER).
“The FASSSTER model was officially adopted by IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) as the COVID-19 disease model that we will be using,” said DoST Secretary Fortunato de la Pena during the online ceremonial turnover.
Dela Pena recounted that FASSSTER was presented before the IATF in March upon realization of “the potential magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
De la Pena said FASSSTER “can predict the peak of confirmed cases, peak date, case doubling time, and other relevant data which will facilitate the understanding in the spread of COVID-19.”
“It can forecast health system capacity requirements based on the projected peak and quantity of mild, severe, and critical cases at the city or municipal, provincial, and regional levels,” said Dela Pena who noted that it can also “display critical care utilization status.”
The DoST Secretary seaid FASSSTER can “determine the LGU’s (local government units) epidemic risk level and appropriate strategy for COVID-19 response based on case doubling time and critical care utilization rate.”
“And it can visualize social, economic, and security risk rating and classification of all cities and municipalities,” he said. “It can perform special analysis to determine clustering of cases at the barangay level,” Dela Pena added.
DoST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) Executive Director Jaime Montoya said the DoST funded the the development of FASSSTER which was developed by the Ateneo for Computing Competency and Research led by project leader Dr. Ma. Regina Justina Estuar starting 2016.
Montoya said FASSSTER was intended as “a disease outbreak monitoring tool initially for dengue, measles, and typhoid, and now, of course, for COVID-19.”
“What started as a modest project by a cadre of visionary researchers has today become a vital support to our health care system and policy makers especially in these uncertain times,” he said.