Medical staffers at Kyungpook Natonal University Hospital treat patient with COVID-19 infection, March 25. /Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



The government has decided to share anonymous COVID-19 patient data with domestic and international researchers as the highly contagious virus pandemic is straining health systems worldwide, according to the president of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA).





Kim Seung-taek, president of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service of Korea

"The novel coronavirus is threatening the livelihood and safety of global citizens, and social and economic activities have been hit hard in many countries. Yet there is little evidence of real-world clinical data available for physicians or policymakers," said HIRA President Kim Seung-taek.



The agency plans to jointly host #OpenData4Covid19 project, a global research collaboration on COVID-19 with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.



As of April 1, nearly 861,000 people have been confirmed with COVID-19 from 200 countries, and the total death toll has reached 42,369 globally. The virus pandemic is expected to continue to spread further for the time being.



The special decision by HIRA and the health ministry has therefore been made to tackle this situation. The data sets are collected and processed promptly, thanks to the Korean National Health Insurance System, which covers the entire population.



The international cooperative research network is the first of its kind where real-time COVID-19 data will be collected and made publicly available to researchers worldwide.



"We hope that researchers from home and abroad join us and actively engage in producing effective measures to combat the virus," Kim said.



The HIRA also said it wants domestic and foreign public institutions, governments, hospitals and health insurance corporations in other countries to join the open data initiative.



The object of COVID-19 International Research is to share the HIRA's patient data to help humanity as a whole overcome the disease and produce effective policy enforcement.





The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) building in Wonju, Gangwon Province. / Courtesy of the HIRA