9.C. Round table: Digital innovation to fight the pandemic, what is here to stay?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge to all Public Health and Healthcare systems around the world. Although strategies and results have varied, there has been a clear investment in digital health tools as part of the response in European Countries. From contact tracing mobile apps to dedicated track and trace information systems, the digital transformation of Public Health practice has been accelerated in this moment of crisis. As countries perfect their digital Public Health tools and reform their information systems, a question comes to mind: which digital transformations might be permanent? What apps, systems or other changes can become the new national norm in each country? How will this affect the European landscape on digital health? Those are the questions we intend to discuss with this workshop, learning from the experience of 3 representatives from 3 different countries and debating those perspectives with the audience. The ultimate goal of the workshop is to explore the digital approaches of European countries in the pandemic fight and to extract best case practices both for future crises and for day-to-day public health activity. There will be one speaker from each of the 3 countries: Malta, Portugal and Switzerland. Each one will have 10 minutes to contextualize the Digital Health Strategy of the country before the pandemic, showcase the digital Public Health tools that were developed during the pandemic and conclude with a prediction of what may permanently change in their respective Public Health systems. The second 30 minutes of the roundtable will be reserved for questions and a debate between the speakers and the audience. Speakers/Panelists Stefan Buttigieg Malta Association of Public Health Medicine, St. Paul's Bay, Malta Eduardo Freire Rodrigues ARSLVT ACES Amadora, Amadora, Portugal Marie-Annick Le Pogam Unisanté - Centre Universitaire de Médecine Générale et Santé Publique, Lausanne, Switzerland Key messages With “building back better” as a mantra, sharing national level experiences is key to empower informed decision making and better digital innovation. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation in a way that affected how public health information systems are implemented and scaled up.