Work packages

Responsible partner: UAntwerpen

In this work package, the planning and execution of the different work packages as described below will be monitored, according to the project timeline. 

The admin and logistics coordination is managed by the UAntwerpen Global Health Institute. This includes planning the different activities step by step, and fully elaborate the logistics/administrative side, to inform and support all members of the partnership and to manage the budget. 

Lead institutions: shared responsibility of UAntwerpen, UZA, Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) and Radboudumc, with logistical support of UAntwerpen

For first-line responders, the essence of being prepared for an impactful infectious phenomenon such as viral hemorrhagic fever breaks down into (1) being able to recognize a particular clinical scenario as "suspicious," (2) having sufficient knowledge of the existing guidelines, (3) correctly executing these guidelines.

Current Belgian guidelines for healthcare workers include guidelines for general practitioners, for non-referral hospitals (general hospitals), and for 112 workers. These guidelines were created in 2014-2015 by the Risk Management Group. All of these guidelines refer to the combination of residence in an endemic region, specific risk exposure, symptoms, and timing for determining the degree of suspicion. Suspicion should then be discussed with the regional infectious disease control physician. Meanwhile, the patient should be kept in provisional isolation locally. Upon confirmation of suspicion by the regional health authority, the patient should be transferred by specialized secure transport to the HLIU of the reference hospital, and the provisional isolation room should be cleaned and decontaminated.
Testing knowledge and skills of all these steps among a broad group of primary care providers requires a good choice of scenarios, with variable degrees of probability and difficulty.
In a first phase an assessment will be made of the prior knowledge of the professionals involved, the related learning needs and preconditions (e.g. revision of existing guidelines, increased availability on epidemiological evolutions, newsletter,...). This can be done by e.g. a concise and targeted KAP survey, supplemented by interviews of key informants.
Then, during round table discussions, the input of the professionals involved will be solicited, in order to know the level of knowledge sufficiently in advance, determine the appropriate learning objectives jointly, establish a set of scenarios, didactic and evaluation methodology. As a basis, comparable trainings on recognizing and managing acute public health risks will be used, e.g. (simple) the concept of fire drills, or (more sophisticated) CBRN training as organized by NATO , but then translated and adapted to the work context of first-line responders in Flanders.
Relevant field partners will be invited for input and evaluation. 

Lead institution: UAntwerpen, in collaboration with European partners of the IDEALiTER project and with substantive support from Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), UZA and Radboudumc. 

Postgraduate exercises focusing on VHF should be embedded in a broader knowledge of pandemic preparedness, where infectiological and epidemiological basics can be refreshed.
For infectious disease education, UAntwerpen is a partner in the IDEALiTER project, which focuses on interactive infectious disease education, in collaboration with several European partners, 2023-2025. Within each working year the organization of a summer course is foreseen, in 2023 it will be organized by UAntwerpen within the theme 'Pandemic preparedness'.
We foresee a combination of thematic lectures and interactive/hands on sessions on different aspects of pandemic preparedness (e.g., surveillance, vaccination, modeling, communication, non-pharmaceutical interventions, outbreak mitigation, mental health, ethical issues, existing guidelines,...). Speakers will be invited from the different participating universities and the partner institutions UA, UZA, ITM and Radboudumc. The combination of both projects allows to attract a wide audience of medical and paramedically trained interested people, and to already explore the further roll out of the planned training package within European partners.

Lead institution: shared responsibility of partnership UAntwerpen, UZA, Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Radboudumc with logistical support from UAntwerpen

Once the script and scenarios are finalized, they will be carried out stepwise as a simulation at a defined number of emergency departments and general practices. Each exercise will include a feedback and learning moment, so that the whole exercise can be seen as a sequence of improvement cycles (i.e., an "improvement spiral"). We envision a physical try-out in a minimum of 10 GP practices and 10 emergency and ambulance services and a formal review of the envisioned package with Dutch field players. Based on the compilation of all experiences, the didactic package will be finalized and a plan written out for more large-scale validation on a national and international level.