Since early 2020, local and national leaders around the world have been tasked with facing the challenges of COVID-19. The level of success has varied – with some nations able to keep the impact of the virus limited, while others face widespread disruption in the health of their citizens and the strength of their economies.

One nation, though, seems to have risen above the rest in terms of the best response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Taiwan. With a population of 23 million, Taiwan has had a remarkable 700 COVID19 cases and only 7 deaths. At the end of October, the nation celebrated 200 straight days without a locally transmitted case.

And the world is noticing, as can be seen in countless articles published around the world. Fortune called Taiwan’s COVID-19 response the “world’s envy” following a 200-day stretch without a locally transmitted case, CNBC praised Taiwan’s highly effective COVID-19 response, or when Stat News pointed to Taiwan’s healthcare as a model from which the world can learn.

So how does Taiwan do it? ICF worked with ICF Taiwan to develop a two-part roundtable series to explore Taiwan’s successes, and to share the best practices with you. These discussions will be released in the coming weeks via ICF’s website and YouTube page, and a detail of each along with speaker biographies can be found below.

Part 1: “All Citizens Matter – Responding to Citizens’ Needs”

The first roundtable discussion in this series looks at how government responds to citizens’ needs, particularly when dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is moderated by Louis Zacharilla, a co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum.

Panelists include:

• Jiunn Shiow Lin, Director, Information Technologies Industries Division, Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan
• Doug McCollough, Chief Information Officer, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA

Part 2: “How does Taiwan contribute to global community with Smart Healthcare solutions?”

The second roundtable discussion in this series explores how Taiwan has a variety of smart healthcare solutions to contribute to global community in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. It is moderated by Dr. Norman Jacknis, Senior Fellow of the Intelligent Community Forum and a faculty member at Columbia University.

Panelists include:

• Jonathan Cheng, Vice President, of Merits Health Products
• Dyna Chao, CEO/ Founder of health inventor
• J. David Liss, President & CEO of JD Liss Associates
• Pat Schou, Executive Director of the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN)

About the Speakers:

Part 1: “All Citizens Matter – Responding to Citizens’ Needs”

Moderator: Lou Zacharilla, Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

Louis Zacharilla is a social entrepreneur who helped start and popularize the Intelligent Community movement.  As a founder of the Intelligent Community Forum he developed the Forum’s iconic Awards program and promotes its holistic approach.  He notes that a truly smart city is “not a place whose heart is the device, rather it is a place whose true center is the soul of its people.”  Lou speaks to audiences worldwide to help them understand the ICF Method and has helped ICF launch two global Institutes. 

Mr. Zacharilla appears regularly in the media and is a frequent keynote speaker and moderator at events related to smart cities, network connectivity, urban policy and our future.  He is quoted in influential forums such as the Wealth Report, Government Technology magazine and the New York State Conference of Mayors.  He joined former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Nobel Peace Prize event in Oslo to speak about ways to create more free and open societies.  He gave his first TEDx talk in Brazil in 2016.

Lou is co-author of four books, including Brain Gain and Seizing Our Destiny.  He writes a popular blog: “Community as Canvas,” and hosts “The INTELLIGENT Community” podcast.  His articles appear regularly in publications worldwide. He is a special contributor to Satellite Executive Briefing magazine and has been featured on Finnish, Swedish, Chinese, Canadian Taiwan and Australian TV.  His work was the subject of a multi-part series in Taiwan’s Ideas Magazine. 

Mr. Zacharilla has lectured around the world, including at Laval University in Quebec City, Fordham University (NY), New York University’s Polytechnic Institute, Central European University (Budapest), Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University and Harvard University, where the ICF Method was the subject of a course at the Harvard School of Design.  He most recently gave the keynote address at the Smart City conference in Casablanca, Morocco.   

Mr. Zacharilla began his career in advertising, where he worked on the US Army’s “Be All You Can Be” campaign. He founded his own company in the satellite industry where he serves as Managing Director of the Intelligent Communities Group, which manages and creates trade associations, advances dialogue among industries and groups with common interests and develops special interest groups or associations in fields related to connectivity and community. 

Louis A. Zacharilla was born in Lyons, New York.  He holds a Masters’ degree from the University of Notre Dame (USA) and lives in Manhattan.  

Speaker: Jiunn Shiow Lin, Director, Information Technologies Industries Division, Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan

Jiunn Shiow Lin is the Division Director for Information Technologies Industries, Industrial Developmet Bureau (IDB). IDB is the administrative agency of Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan that oversees various industries, where Jiunn Shiow is mainly responsible for the the formulation of industrial policies as well as industrial promotion task forces & offices as contact windows to serve the ICT industry.

Under his capacity, he oversees relevant areas in ICT such as Tele/Info Communications, Electronics, Optoelectronics, and Information Equipment/Software Technology. Particularly, he is the main lead for matters relevant to 5G Industrial Development, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Smart City Development under IDB.

Speaker: Doug McCollough, Chief Information Officer, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA

Doug is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the City of Dublin, Ohio, where he leads initiatives in IT Innovation, Digital Experience, Smart City, Broadband, Intelligent Communities, and Blockchain. Dublin, Ohio has a growing reputation as a haven for technology-oriented businesses interested in the collaboration opportunities between Smart Cities and the Private Sector. The City is innovating in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Broadband, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Smart Mobility, Intelligent Transportation Systems, IoT, UAVs, and Automation.

Through the Global Institute for the Study of the Intelligent Community and the Intelligent Communities Forum, Dublin reaches out to communities throughout the State of Ohio in an effort to establish the first Intelligent State with the Intelligent Communities Forum. The City partners with the 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments in the establishment of the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor for the testing of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

Doug supports the Smart Columbus project (SMRT CBUS) through sitting on the Data Policy Workgroup of the Smart Columbus Operating System (SCOS). Is is a member of the National Advisory Board of Tech Corps, and the Advisory Board of Per Scholas Columbus. As a motivated advocate for extending the opportunities of the IT industry to the widest possible community of talent, Doug has spoken on the priorities of diversity, inclusion, workforce development, and opportunity with Columbus Women In Technology, and was Chair of the Planning Committee for the 2018 CIO Tomorrow Conference. He was honored with a C-Suite Award in 2017, and has spoken on numerous technical topics in Colorado, California, New York, Toronto, Quebec, the UK, Australia, Chicago, and Ohio. Doug earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toledo in Information Systems and Operations Management and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Part 2: “How does Taiwan contribute to global community with Smart Healthcare solutions?”

Moderator: Dr. Norman Jacknis, Senior Fellow of the Intelligent Community Forum

Norman Jacknis, Ph.D., has decades of executive and leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He has successfully led organizations to adopt innovations and creatively use technology.

Dr. Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow of the Intelligent Community Forum. He is also a permanent faculty of Columbia University, teaching product/service design and machine learning/artificial intelligence in its Master’s degree program for technology leaders.

Starting with work for the US Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties, he has also designed various projects that blend the digital and physical to create new urban destinations and spaces. He has been featured as a keynote speaker on technology-based economic development and digital transformation across the globe in various locations in Europe, Australia and Asia.

Prior to his current roles, starting in 2008, Dr. Jacknis was Director in Cisco’s IBSG Group, where he worked extensively and in-depth with governments and businesses around the world on innovative strategies.

Before joining Cisco, he served more than ten years as CIO and commissioner of Westchester County, NY government (population a million, just north of New York City), where he was responsible for all technology, analytics, Internet and broadband activities, as well as technology-based economic development. In addition to the County government, he provided these services to municipalities and other non-profit community organizations. He also was co-chair of Technology and Enterprise Architecture in New York State Government’s CIO Council and a member of the national Partnership For Intergovernmental Innovation.

Government Technology Magazine selected him as one of the nation’s “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers who, using technology ... broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public”. Under Dr. Jacknis’s leadership, Westchester County won numerous awards, including the Center for Digital Government’s top ten digital counties in the country, American City & County's Crown Communities Award for technology and was selected as one of the top seven Intelligent Communities in the world.

Before his public service, Dr. Jacknis had diverse experience as an executive in the software industry, with emphasis on Internet applications and distributed computing.

His publications include “Humanizing Data: Using Big Data and Open Data to Engage, Help and Serve the Community” (2019), “Beyond Smarter City Infrastructure – The New Urban Experience” in the Smarter Cities for a Brighter Sustainable Future – A Global Perspective (2015) and “Government’s Role In Facilitating An Innovative Economy” for the International Journal on Innovation Science (2011), among others.

Dr. Jacknis received his Doctorate, Master's and Bachelor's degrees from Princeton University. Among many activities beyond his work, he has been Chairman Emeritus of the regional chapter of the national association of CIOs (SIM) and a trustee of the Westchester County Community College as well as President of the New York Metropolitan Library Council, among several leadership positions in the library community.

Panelist: Pat Schou, Executive Director of the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN)

Pat Schou is the executive director of the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN), the first state-wide critical access hospital (CAH) network established in 2003 comprised of 57 CAH and rural hospitals which is providing a number of hospital support services and educational programs as well as managing several grant programs for the Illinois Department of Public Health and other organizations.

In addition, Schou is the executive director of the Illinois Rural Community Care Organization (IRCCO)), which is a statewide rural accountable care organization comprised of 27 critical access and rural hospitals. Schou has more than 40 years of clinical and rural hospital administrative experience and is the current president of the National Rural Health Association where she has held several positions. She was awarded the Calico Rural Leadership Award by the National Rural Research Center in 2013, Rural Hero Award by the University of Illinois Rural Medical Education in 2016 and received the National Rural Health Association’s President Award in April 2015 and a Community Hero Award from Meridian Health in 2019.

Schou serves as chair of her local health board, the Board for the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (National Hospital Survey Accreditation Organization, National Rural Resource Center Board, and Partners for Connected Illinois Board and is a fellow member of the American College of Healthcare Executives as well as a national speaker and facilitator. She was recently appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. Schou has a Bachelor of Nursing, Illinois Wesleyan University and a Master of Science, Northern Illinois University.

Panelist: J. David Liss, President & CEO, JD Liss Associates

Mr. Liss is President and CEO of JD Liss Associates, a strategic advocacy and communications company focused on healthcare. Prior to that, he was Vice President for External Relations at BioReference Laboratories in Elmwood Park, NJ. Before that, he was Vice President of Government Relations and Strategic Initiatives at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he was responsible for the grants office as well as government affairs. Mr. Liss is a much sought after speaker about healthcare and information technology in academic, corporate, and government settings.

Recognizing the potential for HIT to transform healthcare, Mr. Liss has worked for policies that support HIT and HIE, including the bill that created the precursor of the HIT Policy Committee: the Commission on Systemic Interoperability (CSI). He serves on the board of the New York eHealth Collaborative, the State’s public-private partnership that support the Department of Health in matters pertaining to HIT/HIE. He has served on the boards of or as an advisor to major policy organizations working on HIT, including: the CSI; Markle Foundation’s Connecting for Health; the eHealth Initiative; and the National Alliance for Health IT.

Mr. Liss has a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College.

Panelist: Dyna Chao (Ph.D.), CEO/ Founder of health inventor

Dr. Dyna Chao has more than 28 years of working experience in the high-tech technology and medical industries. She created the health inventor brand and is committed to the invention of medical clinical technology and AI big data algorithms.

In the past 10 years ago, she was a director of healthcare solution-experience center, senior business partner, healthcare subject matter expert (SME), engagement manager, and clinical researcher that would lever several experiences in Healthcare, Public Sector, Insurance, Government, Manufactory and Enterprise Bank Industries.

Dr. Chao also has more than 15-year strong experience in developing a healthcare eco-system in Taiwan, China, and the US.

Dr. Chao builds the first Intelligence Health Cloud Platform in Taiwan and uses Information Technology to innovate the cloud-based solutions for helping people improve their quality of life. In addiction, she has continuously published research in international journals in recent years. Among them, the risk analysis for diabetes was selected by American Diabetes Association(ADA) Diabetes Care as Diabetes 2020 Clinical Science and Technology Reference Standard.

Under the raging COVID-19 pandemic this year, hi was invited by the Taiwan government to build an Intelligent Epidemic Prevention Decision-Making Dashboard. Using hi self-developed medical risk cloud platform, the AI360 intelligent decision- making dashboard dedicated to COVID19 was quickly completed within 72 hours, and the quarantine station completed the service activation within 24 hours. And recognized by the "National Presidential Award for Epidemic Prevention" and the "National Innovation Award—Innovative Epidemic Prevention Technology Research and Innovation Award".

Panelist: Jonathan Cheng, Vice President of Merits Health Products

Mr. Cheng currently serves as the Vice President for Merits Health Products, where he was previously General Manager for Merits USA for 7 years, and Vice President for Merits Group for 8 years.

Mr. Cheng’s expertise includes business contract negotiation, U.S. medical equipment channel development and management and product development and project management. He is also licensed as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP).

Mr. Cheng holds degrees from both National Chengchi University (Financial and Ecnomic Law) and Drexel University (M.B.A).

Mask Image in the header is provided by NCP from pngtree.com