As part of the PHIRI (Population Health Information Research
Infrastructure) project, the National Health Institute (Istituto Superiore di Sanità - ISS), as
the Italian partner, participated in the entire project, but in
particular in the
work packages WP3, WP4, WP5, WP6, WP7 and WP8, involving the
Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging
and, for some specific activities, the Department of Women's Health
and Developmental Age of the ISS and the Polytechnic University of
Marche.
In detail, the ISS:
- in WP3, with the Department of Cardiovascular,
Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging, contributed to the
description and evaluation of the Italian Health Information System
(HIS) relating to COVID-19, through the provision of most of the
preparation material, the identification of the Italian reference
persons to be interviewed on the various aspects useful to the
description of the Italian HIS, the organization of the "Country
visit" for Italy and the interviews with the identified reference
persons, the review of the reports of the interviews, and the
preparation of the final report describing and evaluating the
Italian HIS for COVID-19 summarized in a 2-page brochure (State-of-play
of the COVID-19 Health Information System - Italy). Furthermore,
the ISS collaborated in the preparation of the project's general
report regarding sustainability.
- in WP4, the Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic
Diseases and Aging, as leader of Task 4.3, contributed to the
identification and selection of metadata for the description of
population-based studies and projects regarding the COVID-19
pandemic and the creation of the related catalogue available on the
HIP portal. To this end, it reviewed more than 50 sources to
identify, select, review and include in the catalogue more than 300
international studies or projects regarding COVID-19.
- in WP5, with the Department of Cardiovascular,
Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging, participated in systematic
reviews of national and international articles to identify, define
and describe the main indicators developed in population studies
regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, as the Task 5.3 lead,
it produced the report "Innovative
approaches for health impact assessment in Europe: the role of
digital tools and emerging devices" on "contact tracing devices"
developed and used in European countries for the identification and
management of cases of COVID-19 in the population, a scientific
article entitled “Innovative
methods used in monitoring COVID-19 in Europe: a multinational study”
published in December 2022 in the International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health, and collaborated in
drafting the scientific article entitled “Identification of
methodological issues regarding direct impact indicators of
COVID-19: a rapid scoping review on morbidity, severity and
mortality”, the results of which were presented in two workshops at
the 2021 and 2022 European Public Health (EPH) Conferences.
- Also within the scope of WP5, the Department of Cardiovascular,
Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging participated in the
organization and creation of the
Spring School on Health
Information with the theme "COVID-19 Health Information
Innovations for the Future"
- in WP6 and WP7 the Department of Cardiovascular,
Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging implemented Use Case A
“Vulnerable populations - Direct and indirect determinants of
COVID-19 infection and outcomes in vulnerable population groups with
reference to inequalities” on national data of Hospital Discharge
Records (HDR) and collaborated in the drafting of a scientific
article with the main results entitled “Has the COVID-19 pandemic
changed existing patterns of non-COVID-19 health care utilisation? A
retrospective analysis of 6 regions in Europe” published in the
scientific journal European Journal of Public Health.
Furthermore, the group from the Department of Women's Health and
Developmental Age of the ISS collaborated on Use Case C "The impact
of COVID-19 on perinatal health and perinatal health inequalities"
within the European project EURO-PERISTAT.
As regards WP6, the Polytechnic University of Marche has
implemented Use Case B "COVID-19 related delayed care in breast
cancer patients" on the regional data of Marche.
Furthermore, for WP7, the ISS collaborated in the preparation of
the software to be used for the use cases, providing the list of
data available in Italy and the related formats.
- in WP8 the Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic
Diseases and Aging participated in all the "Rapid Exchange
Forums-REF" (around 60), the "Special requests" (18) and the
"Country requests" (5), relating to the main aspects of the COVID-19
pandemic, collecting and sending information for Italy on the
specific topics and requests proposed from time to time.
As leader of Task 8.4 it produced, together with the Hungarian
partner, the report entitled "Catalogue
of population health information sources on COVID-19" which
describes the path for the identification and selection of metadata
useful for composing the catalogue of sources to be reviewed for
developing guidelines, standards and reports on population health
through international web scraping initiatives and projects on
diagnoses, treatments, interventions and measures related to
COVID-19 conducted in the European countries.
The ISS also provided the main sources of information and health
data from the Italian National Node on the COVID 19 pandemic,
transferring them to the Health Information Portal.
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