Search

Knowledge translation (KT) is an important concept to bridge the gap in health information between research and policy making. Also in Burden of Disease (BoD), with the Disability-adjusted Life Years (DALYs) as its main indicator, this gap exists. KT provides the theory and tools to better link researchers and policy makers to support evidence-informed policy making. The European Burden of Disease Network (COST Action CA18218), serves as technical platform for integrating and strengthening capacity in BoD assessment across Europe and beyond. The network promotes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates KT in the classical BoD framework. One of the work packages working groups focusses on the application of existing KT theory to BoD assessments. Several European countries are undertaking their own National Burden of Disease (NBoD) study, some of them already for many years. They have built up a substantial amount of knowledge on the practical side of KT in relation to BoD assessment. The joint workshop aims to bring together the more theoretical concept of KT with the more practical experiences in three different countries: Scotland, Germany and the Netherlands. The workshop will begin with a presentation on the different concepts of KT in relation to BoD. This will be followed by three presentations of NBoD experiences. Exchange with the audience will be facilitated by using an interactive Mentimeter poll during the session, In this poll, delegates will be asked what they consider to be good elements of KT, and what they consider as main obstacles for KT, in relation to BoD. Key messages Knowledge translation is crucial to bridge the gap between burden of disease research and evidence-informed policy making. Combining the theoretical approach with the practical experience of different countries give valuable complementary insights in effective knowledge translation.

The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that the international community was not ready for a public health emergency of this scale. Countries around the world with varying demographic and economic situations struggle to deal with the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections and hospitalisations. There has been a scramble for all types of resources, ranging from personal protective equipment, to testing capacity, to vaccines. During this workshop, we will present scientific research which focuses on how European countries have attempted to deal with these capacity shortages in the period of the first SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wave in European countries as well as the subsequent period. Each presentation will focus on a specific capacity or domain of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, they will also all provide information on what went well and what did not go well in the attempt to increase capacity. The objective of the workshop is twofold. Firstly, it is to provide the audience with scientific research which aims to have a better understanding of both the capacity issues which have been identified in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the (potential) solutions to increase capacity during inter-pandemic times and future pandemics. Secondly, it is to provide the opportunity for audience to discuss about the findings and interact with the authors. The structure of the workshop will be as follows: The session starts with two thought-provoking statements related to the first two presentations. The audience will be given the opportunity to react to these thoughts using a voting tool and via the chat. This will prime the audience for the upcoming presentations and invite them to participate interactively during the workshop. In the next 15 minutes, the first two presentations will take place. The presenters will end once again with the aforementioned statements. The audience will be given the opportunity to react by asking clarifying questions, respond to, or challenge the statements. After this discussion ends, the same process will take place for the next two presentations. Key messages During preparedness, more attention should be paid to the estimated capacity needs during response. The mobilization of existing resource capacity, and of mechanisms to upscale capacity when shortages are likely to occur, require more structured approaches.

Foresight studies provide valuable information for (strategic) policy-making. They provide insights into the most important future trends and challenges, which is essential for well-informed policy-making. The number of foresight studies in the field of Public Health was limited but the number of studies is growing rapidly over last years. With these studies becoming available, their findings might become a more a regular component of population health monitoring activities. Given the relatively early stage of development of foresight studies in the field of Public health, a proper understanding and interpretation of the future studies might need some further guidance. How to deal with an (uncertain) future in the policy making process is one of the issues that needs to be addressed. This workshop starts with an interactive session to get a better understanding of the level of knowledge and needs regarding foresight studies, followed by the presentations of four different applications of foresight studies. The first one is at the global level from the institute for health metrics and evaluation (IHME) who has a long track record regarding public health data gathering and applying these, for example, to calculate the Global Burden of Disease. Next, EURO-HEALTHY project will present the Scenarios for population health inequalities in 2030 in Europe, partly based on a Web-Delphi process with a multidisciplinary panel. The third presentation will be from Public Health Wales on Futures for Wales which puts future health in the broader perspective of wellbeing. The last presentation will also be a national one, the Public Health foresight study, which has been conducted for more than 2025 years with an update published in 2020. After these presentations, ample time will be reserved for discussion on how these studies could best contribute to better public health policy making. Workshop participants will be informed about the main results of recent foresight studies, allowing them to reflect on these from their own perspective. They will get insight into the approaches and methods used in these recent studies, which may be helpful or inspiring for their own practice. Key messages Public health foresight studies are done more frequently and their findings can influence public health policy making. In this workshop, the methodology and findings of foresight studies at the global, European, and national level will be discussed.