The year 2020 began with a rocky start, as the emergence of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) led to a global crisis. Worldwide, nations sought ways to stop the spread of the virus as policy makers, public health experts, industry leaders, and healthcare providers worked together to respond to this threat. These large-scale collaborative efforts are achievable when effective communication strategies and supportive infrastructure are implemented. Such strategies and support fall under the umbrella of knowledge mobilization, a process that facilitates evidence-based decision making by synergizing the expertise of knowledge producers and distilling actionable outputs through engaging and informing knowledge users. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been strong demand for evidence that can reduce uncertainty and support decision making during this time.
COVID-19 is a perplexing and ever-evolving crisis that requires delegation of expertise and streamlined communication. A collaborative, interdisciplinary network called CanCOVID was launched to accelerate COVID-19 research and its dissemination 1. The goal is to “enable the agile, evidence-based decision-making needed to help steer Canada safely through the COVID-19 pandemic”2. The network consists of experts across various disciplines that are in direct communication via regular meetings and webinars to coordinate research efforts, resource allocation, and transfer of knowledge between scientific, health, and policy communities. CanCOVID efforts have been focused on testing, diagnostics, treatment development, and clinical trials, all of which require engagement from government officials, funding agencies, academics, and entrepreneurs across Canada. Since it was established, CanCOVID has hosted several public talks addressing the impacts of COVID-193 and facilitated clinical and research initiatives such as health data platforms4 to combat the virus.
The scientific findings of the CanCOVID research network, along with the health system status and international discoveries will need to be summarized and effectively communicated to advise the government of Canada’s health and recovery strategies. Along those lines, a COVID-19 expert panel was established to provide insight and advice on up-to-date scientific discoveries pertaining to the virus5. Spearheaded by the Chief Science Advisor of Canada, this multidisciplinary coalition involves clinical researchers and medical practitioners knowledgeable in disease modeling, risk and behaviour, and clinical immunology. This coalition provides direct communication between the government, subject-matter experts, and front-line individuals who have firsthand experience with the pandemic, streamlining the flow of information. The panel helped advise the federal government’s recovery plans including the Safe Restart Agreement, which prioritizes enhanced testing, contact tracing, and investment in healthcare and personal protective equipment6.
In the United States, the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) is a knowledge mobilization initiative that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to help address high-priority COVID-19 questions and inform response efforts7. CORD-19 is a repository of health literature and data curated by Microsoft, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and others8. Following that, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a call to action to the tech community to develop data- and text-mining machine learning algorithms for CORD-19, in order to synthesize main findings and facilitate effective research uptake9. Dr. Oren Etzioni, Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute for AI expressed that “One of the most immediate and impactful applications of AI is in the ability to help scientists, academics, and technologists find the right information in a sea of scientific papers to move research faster.”9. This partnership is an opportunity to accelerate discovery and dissemination of information to both policymakers and the scientific community, with companies such as Doctor Evidence leveraging these focused insights to develop pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-1910.
The National Academies and the White House OSTP have also joined forces to provide evidence-based guidance for members of Congress11. The National Academies possess a large network of leading immunology and epidemiology experts that provide consultations and inform various government agencies. These experts are part of the Standing Committee that regularly engages with government officials and the OSTP to address urgent questions and concerns including healthcare standards during a pandemic and regulation of new antiviral treatments. An example of successful knowledge mobilization, the committee has provided over 10 rapid expert consultations to government officials on issues such as fabric mask effectiveness, laboratory testing, social distancing measures, and disease modeling12.
While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a challenge to address, it also highlights how meaningful collaboration and regular communication can effectively drive the use of knowledge into practice, enabling a faster time to impact. Through effective coordination of resources and human expertise united in shared goals, we can get through this crisis together.
References
- https://cancovid.ca/
- https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_98020.html
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVnQgy-ff_qcLLTQzD6qgDQ/videos
- https://news.ontario.ca/mohltc/en/2020/04/province-developing-new-health-data-platform-to-help-defeat-covid-19.html
- https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_98013.html
- https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/07/16/more-support-canadians-through-safe-restart-agreement
- https://www.kaggle.com/allen-institute-for-ai/CORD-19-research-challenge
- https://www.semanticscholar.org/cord19
- https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/call-action-tech-community-new-machine-readable-covid-19-dataset/
- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200714005401/en/Doctor-Evidence-Deploy-AI-Enabled-SaaS-DOC-Search™
- https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2020/03/our-response-to-covid-19-a-message-from-the-presidents-of-the-nas-nae-and-nam
- https://www.nap.edu/read/25784/
Good summary of various parties working together to address & combat this Covid-19 pandemic! It is hoped that a vaccine can be discovered soonest.