Infectious diseases have the potential to result in serious cross-border public health threats. Management of this type of crisis remains a serious challenge due to the number of people involved, the different legal, administrative, professional and political cultures, and the lack of transboundary crisis management infrastructures.
In response to this, 37 organisations from across the EU (and beyond) have united to deliver a two-year Horizon 2020 innovation project. The STAMINA project was officially launched in September 2020 with a kick-off meeting that brought together over 175 project members who are making good progress towards developing tools for predictive modeling of pandemic outbreaks, along with early warning functionalities and decision support. To assist preparedness, a crisis simulation tool will be developed, defining the roles and responsibilities of key actors, and implementing different training scenarios. Real-time web and social media analytics will help capture societal feelings and reactions, raising awareness and increasing public trust in public health institutions and government authorities. Smart wearable diagnostic devices will be used for first-line screening and monitoring. All information will be fed to a Common Operational Picture (COP) platform, as the main interface for real-time situation assessment and coordinated response of the involved actors. The STAMINA toolset will be accompanied by a set of guidelines on effective implementation of risk communication principles and best practices in cross-organisational preparedness and response plans.
The STAMINA solution will assist national planners, regional crisis management agencies, first responders and citizens by achieving five key goals:
- Support for pandemic crisis management
- Improvement of diagnostic capabilities
- Increase of trust in governmental and public health institutions
- Increase of cooperation between and within the EU Member States and neighbouring third-countries
- Increase of harmonisation of national preparedness and response plans
STAMINA will be developed using a combination of pre-existing state-of-the-art procedures and technologies not currently used by health emergency planners or first responders in Europe in their daily practice of pandemics management. An intelligent decision support toolset with a map-based interface will be the main technical outcome of the project.
“The COVID-19 outbreak has shown us all the importance of having the right tools to manage a pandemic situation. This global crisis has not only affected our health but all aspects of society. STAMINA aims to contribute to this crucial effort by providing solutions for the preparedness and response phases of the emergency management cycle and facilitate intelligent evidence-based decision support. Our research will be developed using the experience gained from many of our partners dealing with the response to COVID-19, as well as historical data from previous health crises.” – Eva Jaho (EXUS, Greece), STAMINA Project Coordinator
The use of the STAMINA methods and tools will be demonstrated through 12 national and regional small-scale demonstrators and the project’s outputs will be presented at the EU Summit event organized by STAMINA during the last phase of the project. The consortium consists of organisations from a diverse range of disciplines, including:
- Decisionmakers, policymakers, national planners and public authorities
- Health care workers, regional emergency management agencies, first responders and NGOs
- Social scientists, (bio)informaticians, research organisations, IT experts
For more information on the STAMINA project please visit our home page: www.stamina-project.eu
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Email: info@stamina-project.eu