Aim 1 - Prepare for the conduct of studies of effect of non-pharmaceutical infection control measures
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Our first aim is to remove barriers and lay the groundwork for conducting effect studies during epidemics and in “peacetime”.
Our work in this area includes:
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Raising awareness and initiating debates about the need for randomized trials and quasi-experimental studies (example: COVID-19: we need randomised trials of school closures)
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Mapping the use of randomized trials and quasi-experimental studies in the public sector (see published report).
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Initiating and engaging in public debate about the legal-ethical and other barriers to conducting randomized trials of public health measures, including issues around individual informed consent requirements (see examples COVID-19: underpowered randomised trials, or no randomised trials?, and Covid-19: Pinlig mangel på kunnskap om effekter av smitteverntiltak)
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Preparing an overview of existing systematic reviews of public health and social measures for infection control in collaboration with the Center for Systematic Reviews on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Public Health and Social Measures Secretariat at the World Health Organization (WHO)
- Working with the Public Health and Social Measures Secretariat at the World Health Organization (WHO) and others to prepare study protocols that can be implemented during health crises
- Carrying out a process with broad stakeholder involvement to identify the p measures that should be prioritized for research by the Centre for Epidemic Interventions Research (CEIR)