PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry's latest website, KKMNOW, was launched today, making it the first ministry to provide an open data source to the public.
The portal, an expansion of the CovidNow portal, features data and updates on the country's public healthcare system.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the effectiveness of the site was evident when the data the ministry shared daily had not only been informative but also helped keep the public safe and updated in terms of the daily Covid-19 cases, deaths and vaccination statistics.
"This initiative is an expansion of the CovidNow portal. It will provide the latest updates on the public healthcare system, facilities and services provided by the ministry.
"In line with the ministry's data transparency policy and the mountain of data available, we have put together KKMNOW, which we hope will create awareness and help Malaysians keep tabs on the public health facilities available according to the districts and each state," he said in his opening speech at the launch today.
Khairy said the portal, a collaboration between the ministry and the Statistics Department, would help the public understand the country's health situation.
Present at the launch were Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Azmi Ghazali and Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Among the data available on the portal are nationwide medicine stocks, blood availability, hospital bed usage, diseases statistics and ambulance response time from MERS999
In the future, Khairy said the ministry hoped to include road accident data from the police, floods and other related agencies as well.
"You may ask why or how traffic accidents or floods are related to the ministry. As we know accidents may have casualties and their treatment may need blood.
"Floods too are known to spread diseases, thus, it's relevant data for the ministry," he said.
He also said making data available to the public was not enough, as they had to be easy to understand and presented in an attractive way.
Khairy said KKMNOW would be the first government site making data available to the public for free, without breaching the personal privacy data policy.