Mindef - The Power of Tech

As COVID-19 cases among the workers residing in the dormitories rose dramatically in early May 2020, the Multi-Ministry Task Force announced its plan to test over 300,000 dormitory residents. It would be tremendously challenging for the Joint Task Force (Assurance) [JTF(A)] to isolate and transport migrant workers from their dormitories to external swab facilities. Such an operation would also be fraught with risks. A way had to be found to bring swabbing facilities to the migrant workers instead.

Taking a leaf from the swab systems in Singapore General Hospital (SGH), CSSTST developed the Mobile Swab Station (MSS). It took the team only three weeks to conceptualise, operationalise and deploy the first swab station. This proved to be a good and sustainable solution. It provided a safe and conducive environment for swab operations, and the mobility of the swab stations enabled JTF(A) to plan ahead and cover the dormitories in a systematic manner.

We knew that time was critical and we had to deploy the MSS on the ground as soon as possible. Fortunately, the team - which included those from DSTA, ST Engineering and The Biofactory - worked very well together; we had a tight partnership. So we managed to deploy the MSS within three weeks from conceptualisation. The team took a user-centric approach. We got the SGH doctors to test out the system and give their feedback. And we took the healthcare workers' needs into account and got them to test the prototype before we moved to full-scale fabrication.

ME4 Yee Kar Kit Barry
Lead Engineer HQ MES

The Mobile Express Scanner app helped to coordinate registration, testing and discharge timelines, resulting in time savings and reducing contact between patients and frontline staff.
Source: MINDEF

In the initial phase of the swab operations, CSSTF implemented technological solutions to replace the manual approach of recording swab results, which was vulnerable to human error and suboptimal coordination of registration, testing and discharge timelines. CSSTF's Mobile Express Scanner, which replaced manual recordings, reduced registration time as well as unnecessary contact time between the administrative staff and the patients. Both innovations in swabbing capabilities - the swab stations and mobile express scanners - worked so well that they were used throughout the SAF's swabbing operations in the dormitories.

Click HERE to view the Mobile Swab Station and Mobile Express Scanner in action!

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MOBILE SWAB STATIONS