WHO launches new collaborating centre to advance research on public health and social measures during health emergencies

In August 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the
Centre for Epidemic Interventions Research at the Norwegian Institute of
Public Health as a WHO Collaborating Center for effectiveness research
on public health and social measures (PHSM) for health emergencies.
The
designation follows a three-year collaboration in strengthening the
global evidence base on PHSM, which began with the launch of the WHO
Initiative to measure the effectiveness and impact of PHSM during health
emergencies in June 2021.
The WHO Collaborating Centre was
inaugurated at a seminar in Oslo on 25 November 2024 featuring welcome
speeches by Ushman A. Mushtaq, State Secretary, Norwegian Ministry of
Health and Care Services; Guri Rørtveit, General Director, Norwegian
Institute of Public Health; and Mike Ryan, Executive Director, WHO
Health Emergencies Programme.
During the seminar, Atle Fretheim,
Director of the new WHO Collaborating Centre, discussed the challenges
of conducting randomized controlled trials during the COVID-19 pandemic,
for example on the effectiveness of wearing face masks. He highlighted
how lengthy ethical review procedures and the lack of study templates
hindered the timely collection of high-quality and comparable data.
Ramona
Ludolph, Technical Officer of the WHO PHSM Secretariat, presented WHO’s
efforts to promote PHSM research and evidence-informed decision-making,
and spoke about how the new WHO Collaborating Center will contribute to
advancing the global PHSM agenda. The seminar concluded with a panel
discussion on the importance of international collaboration for
policy-relevant research, featuring Frode Forland, Norwegian Institute
of Public Health and African CDC; Halvor Sommerfelt, University of
Bergen; and Tania Schmidt, WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The
contributions of the WHO Collaborating Centre will be critical to
closing persisting evidence gaps on the effectiveness of PHSM and
strengthening research capacity in countries. Planned activities for the
designated period of 2024–2028 include:
- the development of study protocol templates to measure the effectiveness of and adherence to PHSM;
- the development of a guide on adapting and implementing study protocol templates; and
- evidence
reviews on the effectiveness, and health and socio-economic
consequences of, PHSM implementation during infectious disease
outbreaks.
Credit: WHO/Sam Bradd
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