In times marked by rapid globalization and constant change, the mission of preparedness and crisis management has never been more crucial. Preparedness involves anticipating threats through intelligence gathering and addressing existing gaps in readiness. Emerging from the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, mapping IT systems and their capacities in Member States is essential to identify gaps and work towards strengthening such systems.
EU-HIP Country Visits
A baseline activity of the EU-HIP project is the mapping of countries’ IT systems and their functionalities, in relation to the priority areas of the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA). Such priorities areas are:
- Pathogens with high pandemic potential (HPPP),
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR),
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear (CBRN) threats
- Appropriate medical countermeasures, such as medicinal products, medical devices and personal protective equipment (PPE).
The EU-HIP team is currently producing a mapping of the current state of progress in national IT systems supporting collaboration on health threats preparedness and medical countermeasures in Europe. The collection of information using the mentioned tool comprises two main phases:
- Landscape analysis: The tool was shared with various national experts. This step aimed to gather an initial overview of the information systems, stakeholders, and legislations in place across the different European countries concerning HERA’s four priority topics.
- Country visits: In the second phase, semi-structured interviews are conducted with experts, delving deeper into each topic. The goal is to gain insights into the functionality of these systems, the roles and interactions of key stakeholders and additional details about pertinent legislations. The interviews build upon the tool's pre-existing questions, encouraging experts to provide additional information beyond what has been already collected or shared during the first main phase.