PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUTURE CROSS-BORDER PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT

Within this paper requirements and related gaps associated with cross-border pandemic management are analyzed. In order to systematically investigate the potential of solutions to close such gaps, trials can be executed and evaluated. Core elements of such trials are specific scenarios that frame the validation of the applicability of solutions. Stakeholders involved in pandemic management specified a framing for such scenarios such as cross-border common operational picture and resource management, pandemic management during a refugee crisis and sharing of mobile infrastructure to detect pathogens. An insight in these scenarios is given and, finally, solutions having the potential to close at least partially gaps arising in the mentioned scenarios provided from projects such as STAMINA are presented. © 2022 IDIMT. All rights reserved.

REQUIREMENT FOCUSED INTERVENTION-MATCHING FOR PANDEMIC MANAGEMENT: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES FOR INVOLVEMENT OF EVIDENCE BASED LESSONS LEARNED

COVID-19 still represents one of the greatest global challenges of the last decades in terms of medical, coordination and management aspects, but also on the societal and economic level. Even after more than two years, the rapidly changing requirements that the emerging variations of the virus call for, show that Austria – as the majority of countries and organizations – is still struggling with a stringent and pertinent management approach. The call for a comprehensive, applicable and interoperable solution portfolio including evidence-based analysis of current processes/structures, tools and infrastructures as well as lessons learned from the current pandemic response, is evident. The enhanced “ROADS to Health”-approach, currently evaluated by national funding agencies, reflects this aim: a holistic solution set aiming at a technologically supported, lessons learned based system for the pandemic management for the future. ROADS focuses on a basis for optimized crisis management for future pandemics/epidemics from a holistic, user-centric perspective. The concrete goal is to create a basis for a technologically supported measure matching to current requirements for decision-makers and critical infrastructures. Thus, interventions or future mitigation measures for the management of a pandemic are matched with concrete and current requirements. This measure matching will build upon the existing "Portfolio of Solutions" (POS) platform developed by AIT. Relevant medical/epidemiological, social, economic and legal fundamentals and different types and characteristics of pandemics/epidemics will also be considered (infection routes, morbidity and mortality risks, affectedness: age, gender ...) as well as various needs, given resources and processes. International lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis, knowledge and results from merging practical experiences from crisis management feed into a concept design to facilitate and initiate technological support for enhanced future pandemics/epidemics tackling and potentially for other crisis situations. This keynote paper will draft the frame of this model by presenting the underlying background and basis of the ROADS to Health-solution set and open the floor for a wider range of perspectives of optimization in pandemic and crisis management. © 2022 IDIMT. All rights reserved.

Risk, vulnerability and resilience analyses for pandemic management: Challenges and perspectives of approaches for the future

COVID-19 represents one of the greatest global challenges of the last decades in terms of medical, coordination and management aspects, but also on the societal and economic level. The borderline experience of dealing with such a complex, global event has shown that Austria - as the majority of countries and organizations - was inadequately prepared for a crisis of this kind in some areas. The call for a comprehensive, applicable and interoperable solution portfolio including evidence-based analysis of current processes/structures, tools and infrastructures as well as lessons learned from the current pandemic response, is evident. The “ROADS to Health” reflect this approach7, a holistic solution set up aiming at developing a technologically supported, clearly structured pandemic management for the future. Experiences from the current management will be processed and included in risk analyses to describe further, possible future pandemic scenarios in order to derive practical resilience strategies and develop connectable tool modules and a roadmap. "Strengthening strengths, bridging weaknesses" will be the overarching goal, taking into account specific, particularly relevant questions and tasks of the stakeholders as well as of other interested parties involved in management with regard to the actual prevention potential of current, isolated measures. Resilience is thus to be promoted in selected, particularly relevant areas and tools for reducing vulnerability are to be made available to decision-makers through a holistic approach. This keynote paper will draft the frame of this model by presenting the underlying background and basis of the ROADS to Health-solution set and open the floor for a wider range of perspectives of optimization in pandemic and crisis management. © 2021 IDIMT 2021 - Pandemics: Impacts, Strategies and Responses, 29th Interdisciplinary Information Management Talks All rights reserved.

Securing food production & Logistics in crisis situations: The NUTRISAFE project approach on challenges and perspectives of supply chain security

The objective of the KIRAS security research project NutriSafe is to develop and evaluate Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for enhancing the resilience of value chains in the Food Industry. Different use cases about the application of DLT was dealt with comprehensively. The focus for Austria was identified mainly in the fields of food security: logistic challenges, disruption of transfer, processing or packaging, pandemic animal diseases or crop failure due to climatic change effects. For the German partners, food safety focused on contamination of foodstuff with germs, diseases or foreign particles that require a retrieval action. In this way, new insights and training tools are created in cooperation with international practice partners to improve food security in the course of the upcoming digitalization and to secure the supply in case of emergency. This paper will give an overview14 of the dynamic work in progress of the project and its challenges by summarizing the findings nearly. Examples will show lessons learned, good practice, but also challenges and open questions or gaps in the wake of complex crisis scenarios and events as the still ongoing COVID pandemic, natural or man-made incidents, or criminal acts represent. © 2021 IDIMT 2021 - Pandemics: Impacts, Strategies and Responses, 29th Interdisciplinary Information Management Talks All rights reserved.

The benefits of trials for pandemic management

Evaluations in the frame of the EU research projects DRIVER+ and STAMINA revealed that, aside from the multitude of solutions that can be applied to manage a pandemic (restraining measures, protective equipment, tests for epidemiological observations, therapies and vaccines, tools for predictions, resource planning and monitoring, IT solutions for public services), there is also a need for procedures on how to systematically evaluate such solutions. End users, e.g. in medical services have to ensure that new solutions fit to their established pandemic management processes in order to avoid unexpected side effects on the execution of their tasks. In this paper we show a new methodology designed to examine pandemic solutions and provide insights based on the different national trials of STAMINA. © 2021 IDIMT 2021 - Pandemics: Impacts, Strategies and Responses, 29th Interdisciplinary Information Management Talks All rights reserved.

Interoperability and crisis management in pandemic outbreak scenarios an overview on different case studies of the austrian approach to tackle the SARS-CoV-2 spread and adherent management challenges

The global spread of the novel Corona Virus, SARS-CoV-2, in the first half of 2020, resulted in a massive strain of multiple and diverse crisis management structures all over the world. Interoperability of governmental and non-governmental responder organizations as well as of analysis and communication infrastructure were put under a real stress test and concepts of the response to this pandemic outbreak were rapidly set up, modified, changed, and applied according to multiple integrated and changing data sources. Austria, as a country with a relatively mild development of the COVID effects, will be selected as a use case provider to exemplify lessons learned. This paper will give a comprehensive overview of the dynamic development of the initial and follow up steps. Examples from a public service provider AGES, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, the research organization and technology provider AIT, and the first responder and social services organization Johanniter Unfallhilfe, will show lessons learned, good practice, but also challenges and open questions or gaps in the wake of this complex crisis scenario. © 2019 by the authors.

Analysis of gaps arising while managing the COVID-19 crisis

In the frame of the research for DRIVER+ strategic gaps arising in the management of crisis and disasters were analysed and used as basis for the development of the products and methods of the project. To reflect the requirements arising in the current COVID-19 crisis it was decided to search for challenges and gaps related to the management of pandemics. For this purpose, an electronic questionnaire was developed and distributed using the networks of the project. In the frame of this paper we present the results of the analysis of the first stage of distribution reflecting the situation by the end of April 2020. The results demonstrate a wide range of existing challenges, encompassing lack of different type of resources as well as interoperability and data management gaps. © 2019 by the authors.