In view of the declaration of the coronavirus pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the national emergency declared by Peru, the EsSalud - Social Health Insurance Institute (EsSalud - Seguro Social de Salud) proposed rapid responses to tackle the challenge of insufficient hospital infrastructure in order to protect lives and offer healthcare services during a health emergency.

The EsSalud - Social Health Insurance Institute (EsSalud - Seguro Social de Salud) of Peru is a critical actor with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it watches over the well-being of nearly 12 million insured persons. The information produced by the recently created Business Intelligence and Data Analytics Unit (Unidad de Inteligencia y Análisis de Datos – UIAD) has underpinned the strategic, tactical and operational decisions of EsSalud’s senior management and other entities, as well as other aspects of the institutional response to the health emergency.

The quality of health services is an urgent necessity in order to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is estimated that up to 80 per cent of the people who become infected only exhibit mild symptoms, the primary challenge facing health systems is in dealing with moderate or severe manifestations that require hospital care.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of the services responsible for providing care during said pandemic, the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social – IMSS) implemented a data governance strategy designed to provide key areas with valuable information on aspects such as health, staff management, training and the monitoring of materials and supplies The aim is to facilitate decision-making through a single information source.

The information technology (IT) service of the Social Insurance Bank (Banco de Previsión Social – BPS) of Uruguay has developed a robot – its aim is to automate, speed up and enhance the efficiency of processes for receiving requests for help, with regard to IT issues and/or citizen applications concerning benefits at moments when the institute’s call centre is experiencing high demand or is overwhelmed (i.e. the current pandemic, tax responsibilities falling due or the issuance of new benefits, etc.).

In March 2020, the Social Insurance Fund of Costa Rica (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social – CCSS) consolidated an innovative automated tool for tracking the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic among the population and the relevant care provided in the CCSS’s health establishments.

Intelligent health analytics solutions were developed for the clinical and administrative management of services, with timely, high-quality information in means accessible by decision-makers, thereby boosting the effectiveness of the management of the pandemic and other pathologies.

With a view to determining the results of the alignment and performance of the Strategic Institutional Plan (Plan Estratégico Institucional – PEI) of the Social Insurance Fund of Costa Rica (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social – CCSS), the annual evaluation for 2019 was conducted as a learning process and for the continuous improvement of management.

The pandemic that recently hit the entire world has changed our ways of working, generating a significant negative impact on people’s health in both the world of work and everyday life. Added to this are the economic difficulties that countries are currently experiencing worldwide.

The National Scientific Research Committee (Comité Nacional de Investigación Científica - CNIC) of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social – IMSS) aims to evaluate, record and monitor health research protocols that meet the requirements for consideration.

In 2017 the IMSS launched the Electronic Research Record System (Sistema de Registro Electrónico de Investigación - SIRELCIS) in order to reduce the time needed to evaluate research protocols submitted to the CNIC for review.

Like most of the world’s countries, Paraguay has adopted lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These steps taken by the government have impacted the productive sector, leading to mass suspensions of employment contracts for persons insured with the Social Insurance Institute (Instituto de Previsión Social – IPS) of Paraguay.