Within PHIRI, the Population Health Information Research Infrastructure, a Rapid Exchange Forum (REF) is organized regularly every two weeks or as needed, addressing urgent questions and current developments in population health during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In this one hour meeting, the participants belonging to European public health institutes, Ministries of Health, research institutions and universities as well as EU-level stakeholders answer questions and discuss experiences from their own countries related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other population health issues that require rapid responses. Each meeting is organized around a topic or set of topics of timely relevance to the participating countries, and answers to the questions are shared during the meeting as well as in writing immediately before or after the meetings. This allows a rapid exchange of information across countries to learn from each other’s challenges and best practices, and compare e.g. vaccination-, testing-, and communication strategies, reactions to new virus variants, mortality indicators, long-term pandemic monitoring and surveillance, and impact evaluations of the pandemic. The answers to questions discussed during the REF meetings are uploaded to the Health Information Portal at the latest by the end of the week in which each meeting takes place.
Please use the search function below to browse the content of previous REF meetings. In order to search for an exact phrase, you can utilize quotation marks around your search term.
| Title | Question | Date | Document(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65th Rapid Exchange Forum: Regulations for energy drinks among children | Regulations for energy drinks among children Does your country have any policies/legislations/campaigns in place to reduce/regulate the use of energy drinks, particularly among children? Would you able to share documentation about this? Also any research that you may be aware of on the effectiveness of such measures (even if maybe such measures did not get implemented by policymakers) would also be very welcome. |
03-Jun-2024 | |
| 64th Rapid Exchange Forum: Regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence (AI) in health | Regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence (AI) in health
|
08-Apr-2024 | |
| 63rd Rapid Exchange Forum: Trust in exchange of data for secondary use purposes | Trust in exchange of data for secondary use purposes |
11-Mar-2024 | |
| 62nd Rapid Exchange Forum: Covid infection in vaccinated people in autumn/winter | Covid infection in vaccinated people in autumn/winter |
12-Feb-2024 | |
| 61st Rapid Exchange Forum: Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and hospitalisation rate in children | Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and hospitalisation rate in children |
15-Jan-2024 | |
| Rapid Exchange Forum ad-hoc question (Austria): Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in Europe | Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections in Europe Currently there is a systematic review conducted on the prevalence of 4 sexually transmitted infections in Europe: chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and trichomoniasis. We are conducting extensive literature searches in bibliographic databases but are also interested in grey literature. We would be very grateful if you could:
(The focus of this request is on grey literature, but please don’t hesitate to also indicate relevant peer-reviewed literature, especially recent publications.) Please note that for this review we are not interested in incidence estimates derived from routine surveillance (i.e., number of case notifications per national/regional population), but only in prevalence estimates derived from a study where the total population of tested individuals is known and described. |
18-Dec-2023 | |
| 59th Rapid Exchange Forum: Covid-19 combined vaccination | Covid-19 combined vaccination In countries where Covid-19 is vaccinated combined with another immunization, e.g. against influenza, was there a (remarkable) increase of Covid-19 vaccinations? What could have caused this increase, what are the possible reasons? Are there any learnings with such a system? Please share your experiences. |
20-Nov-2023 | |
| 58th Rapid Exchange Forum: Covid-19 measures – Update per October 2023 | Covid-19 measures – Update per October 2023 The following Y/N questions, asked in a live poll during the meeting, are intended to be displayed on the Health Information Portal: A. Vaccination 1. Is Covid-19 vaccination for free in your country? 2. Is a booster vaccination free in your country? 3. Is Covid-19 vaccination or booster available in pharmacies? 4. Do you have a vaccination strategy / recommendation for children below 12 years? B. Surveillance 5. Is there a Long-Covid strategy in place in your country? 6. Does your country have a registry on Long-Covid patients? 7. Is there a wastewater monitoring in your country or at least regionally? 8. Is there a national Covid-19 dashboard that is currently being serviced? C. Measures 9. Are there actually any measures or restrictions in place? 10. Is self-testing for free in your country? 11. Is it possible to book a test-slot for free in your country? 12. Is it possible to book a test-slot against payment in your country? 13. Is it mandatory to wear face masks in hospital settings? 14. Is an evaluation of the pandemic measures in your country planned or already ongoing? 15. Can the pandemic response team be reactivated any time quickly (within 2 days)? |
23-Oct-2023 | |
| Rapid Exchange Forum - Special Edition 6th | Harmonising advances in Long COVID research: Uniting European actors for solutions |
09-Oct-2023 | |
| 56th Rapid Exchange Forum: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI) on Health Data Processing | Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI) on Health Data Processing
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25-Sep-2023 |