17 Aug NO-FEAR COVID-19 online events: 2020 mid-year recap
In March 2020, NO-FEAR began hosting webinars and online interviews about international medical responses to Coronavirus. After becoming a European Commission COVID-19 project, NO-FEAR changed its focus to help emergency services professionals come together to share experiences, innovative techniques, and lessons learned to fight the pandemic. Events like these will continue to be held regularly. Past highlights are below.
Visit here to log in to the NO-FEAR portal, view webinar recordings, and see written outcomes. You may also sign up if you are not yet registered. A selection of videos are also available on the NO-FEAR YouTube channel. For further information on the NO-FEAR project, visit: https://no-fearproject.eu .
Lessons learned at emergency call and operations centres (August 13)
This small group discussion, an activity of WP4: Acute care operations in security incidents, featured presenters on how call centres in five countries handled new challenges brought by COVID-19. These included responding to increased call numbers, new patient routing plans, social distancing implementation, and the public’s requests for information and reassurance.
Use of Isolation Chambers in the transport of COVID—19 patients (July 23)
Organized as part of WP4, this small group discussion was had by first responders from four countries on the effectiveness of different means of safely transporting COVID-19 positive or suspected patients during the pandemic.
‘Meet the expert’: Convalescent Plasma treatment for COVID-19 patients (July 16)
As part of NO-FEAR WP3: Acute care of the patient, Prof. Gina Zini discussed how plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients is being used in several countries to treat recovering patients. Zini is Associate Professor and Director of the Cord Blood Bank at The Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC), as well as Director of the Blood Bank at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS. A video of the presentation is available on YouTube.
Challenges and possible solutions for the Psychosocial Support impact of wearing PPE (July 9)
Magen David Adom (MDA) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Psychosocial Support (PS) Centre hosted a webinar as part of WP4 to discuss the psychosocial effects of wearing personal protective equipment on health care workers and the people they serve – including stress associated with losing the ‘normal way of doing things’.
EMS operations lessons learned from the COVID 19 response (June 23)
At this NO-FEAR WP4 event, emergency services personnel from six countries discussed their experiences treating patients during the pandemic. Topics included bystander CPR and patient transportation.
Just-in-Time Training: Methodologies in the Medical, Flood Response and CBRN Fields (June 18)
Five pan-European networks of security practitioners jointly organised a webinar approaching just-in-time training best practices and methodologies in the medical, flood response and CBRN fields. A video of this webinar is available on YouTube. More details on speakers are available here.
Nursing Homes and COVID-19: Learning by the day (June 4)
In a number of European countries, deaths in care homes represent 30% to 60% of all COVID-19 deaths (source: ECDC). This WP3 webinar focused on responses and solutions applied in three EU countries: Ireland, France and Spain. More details on speakers are available here.
Hospital organization – COVID 19 (June 3)
NO-FEAR partner Magen David Adom (MDA) convened this webinar as part of WP4 to discuss lessons learned. Speakers discussed experiences in measuring team response and setting up a field hospital in Madrid; community solidarity and COVID-19 designated hospitals in Italy; information sharing in France; COVID preparations in Brussels; personnel management (including of quarantined personnel) and the rapid increase of mechanical ventilation capacity in Israel. More details on speakers are available here.
EMS living with COVID: A new reality (May 11)
The WP4 webinar featured presentations by EMS staff and experts from the United States, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, and Israel, who shared experiences from their respective countries, discussed the challenges they have been facing, and identified the different needs that are still to be addressed. More details on speakers are available here.
Lessons learned on ventilation techniques from the pre-hospital to the ICU in COVID-19 management (April 28)
This webinar focused on the lessons identified in different countries on ventilation and the protection of health care providers while treating patients. Speakers were from Norway, France, Italy, Israel, and Spain. More details on speakers is available here.
COVID-19: Ethical implications and psychosocial support in hospital care (March 25)
In this webinar, hosted by NO-FEAR partner Centre for Security and Society, University of Freiburg, Dr Sabina Magalini from Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) interviewed bioethics expert Prof Laura Palazzani from Lumsa University. Psychologist Babara Juen and Health Visitor Rachele Brancaleoni from UCSC discussed psychosocial challenges during the crisis and potential solutions. Themes emerging in a question and answer session included ethical data sharing and deployment of newly qualified staff into COVID-19 wards. More details are available here.
The response to COVID-19: A comparison of experiences in Europe (March 9)
Approximately 500 participants from across the world attended NO-FEAR’s first COVID webinar, where they heard partners discuss differences in diagnosis, treatment, acute patient care and emergency response based on the experience of practitioners involved first-hand in the crisis management and response planning. Speakers were from Italy, France, Spain and Israel. More details on speakers are available here.
NO-FEAR project members were also invited to and presented at webinars organized by PROACTIVE on consortium partners’ responses to COVID-19 (April 30) and SEREN4 on disaster resilient societies (May 19-20).
NO-FEAR is a 5-year project that brings together a network of emergency medical care practitioners, suppliers, decision and policy makers to collaborate and exchange knowledge, good practices, and lessons learned in disaster and crisis management. Our networks work together to develop a common understanding and to enhance the response to security-related incidents. The NO-FEAR project seeks to harness the rich experience of our members and leverage our network to improve the exchange of good practices and information in Europe and beyond. To join one of the NO-FEAR networks and become part of our community, sign up to our portal: https://no-fearproject.eu
No Comments