Managing the process from good ideas to effective implementation

There is an explosion of initiatives around the world to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these will contribute to new effective innovations while others are simply poor solutions - as some companies may try to benefit from the current situation. The challenge is how to select the right solution that will really address the problem. 

The focus will initially be diagnostic and digital solutions that help to address the most urgent needs, but we aim to broaden the scope over time.

The aim with this initiative is to provide a horizon scanning collaboration which combines an overview of the evolving products with a review of topical experts to ensure that we have the best possible understanding when decisions about implementation are being made.

It is more important than ever before that we work together in multi-disciplinary teams to understand which solutions will effectively address the problems at hand without delaying implementation. We hope that we will find ways to work together across traditional boundaries for the benefit of all.

We have initiated a project to support this process including:

• Analytical work of health care demands and availability of solutions
• Virtual scientific conference with a series of thematic sessions to address scientific methodology and evidence to support the best possible introduction of measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim is to bring together the most relevant experts for mutual learning while providing evidence-based insights regarding diagnosing, managing, treating, preventing and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The main outcome of the thematic sessions is to summarize the best knowledge on COVID-19 solutions and identify vital evidence gaps to resolve. The proceedings from these thematic sessions will be published in scientific journals.

The setting of this project is very different than what one could normally expect for an initiative of this character. We have an initial network of strategic experts in several countries that are willing to contribute. However, we do not have the financial resources nor manpower to execute this. We are dependent on people and organisations that are willing to contribute in-kind and/or financially.

The uniqueness of this initiative lies in the mutual learning from other European countries (UK, Germany, Denmark, France, Italy and Sweden) along with observations from China, South Korea and Singapore.

Co-chairs