The Network of University Medicine: Transferring New COVID-19 Research Findings into Patient Care

ABSTRACT

Guidelines are a key tool in the dissemination of new research findings for patient treatment. They are structured to support the best possible evidence-based care. For the management of a new disease such as COVID-19, for which there was initially no established care practice, the rapid development of up-to-date guidelines was essential. In view of intensive worldwide research, a great deal of new knowledge has been generated in a short time. At the same time, a large number of patients required acute care. The wealth of new knowledge thus had to be transferred very quickly into practice at a time when medical staff were already heavily burdened by the high demand for care. Furthermore, the preparation of guidelines is time-consuming and costly. For this reason, the Network University Medicine (NUM), a research association of 36 German university hospitals, has developed approaches in the CEOsys project to significantly accelerate the transfer of new findings from COVID-19 research into patient treatment. The platforms required for this must now be consolidated in order to permanently improve pandemic preparedness in Germany. Copyright © 2022 Georg Thieme Verlag. All rights reserved.