NO-FEAR: European project promotes knowledge
COVID-19 pushed health systems to near breaking point. Transnational cooperation and the exchange of information, best practices and solutions is of paramount importance.
By Knowledge Network – Staff member
NO-FEAR: European project promotes knowledge sharing on medical and health emergency responses
Large-scale health emergencies need the whole chain of emergency actors to quickly assess the situation and provide care for those in need in a coordinated and collaborative way. But emergency responders often speak ‘different languages’ - both figuratively and literally – and emergency response protocols and equipment can differ between organisations and countries.
To overcome this and help achieve the best cooperation between emergency health response actors, the EU-funded NO-FEAR project mobilises practitioners, policymakers and representatives from academia and industry to share real-time knowledge, experiences, lessons learned and challenges. The NO-FEAR network works towards a common understanding of European emergency health response needs and operational gaps, and to uniting actors to work together and to identify areas for innovation.
A changing threat landscape
When the NO-FEAR project started in 2018, large-scale health threats to European citizens centered on security-related incidents such as terrorism, fires, CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) incidents and conflicts. While these dangers remain, COVID-19 has drastically altered the nature of the threats which Europe’s Emergency Medical System (EMS) must respond to.
“The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly represents the major health threat of our time, putting our citizens in danger and pushing many of our national health systems to a breaking point,” “Medical practitioners find themselves operating in completely unknown and unpredictable situations." In this scenario, "encouraging the transnational cooperation and the exchange of information, lessons learned, best practices and quickly available solutions is of paramount importance.”
As COVID-19 responses are being worked out on the ground by first responders, medical professionals, scientific innovators, and worldwide experts, NO-FEAR connects these actors and allows them to tap into each other’s wealth of experience. During the pandemic, NO-FEAR webinars and discussions have offered a space for key emergency health response stakeholders to help each other prepare for and respond to this new and continually evolving threat.
Practitioner-focused webinars
Topics discussed in recent NO-FEAR practitioner-focused webinars include:
- Emergency communication in the era of 5G;
- Experience sharing during COVID 19 – How we can leverage cross border cooperation to better prepare for the future;
- Medical and logistical constraints of COVID-19 patient air transfers;
- Ransomware attack on the Irish Health Service.
Conference on lessons learned from COVID-19
NO-FEAR hosted a three-day conference in Madrid on 28–30 March 2022 to analyse lessons learned from the project response to COVID-19.
Conference participants covered topics such as the effectiveness of COVID-19 measures, innovative personal protective equipment (PPE), new disinfection technologies and materials, and practicing telemedicine.
A ‘matchmaking’ event co-organised with the European Innovation Council during the event brought together companies, start-ups, and other EU projects such as CO-VERSATILE and iProcure Security to present their own innovative emergency health response solutions.
Global impact
The speed at which COVID-19 protocols, operating procedures and treatments were established shows the importance of emergency health practitioners having access to up-to-date information. While it is an EU-funded project, the network that NO-FEAR is building is global and will allow practitioners worldwide to better collaborate and adapt emergency responses to continually evolving threats
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The Knowledge Network – Staff member
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