Article
EsteR – a rapid living review to generate evidence for a tool for COVID-19 decision support in German local health departments
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Authors
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Lisa Kühne
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Prevention and Evaluation, Deutschland; Leibniz Science Campus Digital Public Health Bremen, Bremen, Deutschland
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Sophia Brüssermann
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Prevention and Evaluation, Deutschland
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Karina Karolina De Santis
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Prevention and Evaluation, Deutschland; Leibniz Science Campus Digital Public Health Bremen, Bremen, Deutschland
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Sonja Jäckle
- Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, Deutschland
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Stefanie Grimm
- Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM, Deutschland
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Trung-Hoa Ha
- Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, Deutschland
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Hajo Zeeb
- Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Prevention and Evaluation, Deutschland; Leibniz Science Campus Digital Public Health Bremen, Bremen, Deutschland
| Published: | August 30, 2022 |
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Outline
Text
Background/research question: The local health departments in Germany are responsible for the containment of COVID-19 outbreaks. Contacts of individuals who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 are traced, and the employees need to assess the risk for secondary infections. The tool developed within the project EsteR provides support for such decisions as it offers guidance based on statistical risk models. A demonstrator tool is available as a Shiny App (https://ester.fraunhofer.de/). The tool is currently under further development and will be refined jointly with the cooperating health departments.
We provide the underlying evidence for the epidemiological parameters of the risk models on possible transmission. To adhere to the ongoing adaptations of the tool and the fast-changing literature, we conduct a rapid living review. The research questions were held generic on the time frame for SARS-CoV-2 infection and on transmission probability to allow for specification of the outcomes in the tool development process.
Methods: The methodology of the rapid living review was established based on the guidelines by the Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group [1] and the Competence Network Public Health COVID-19 [2]. The protocol was published on OSF [3]. We conducted the search in two databases and repeated it after three months. We will synthesise transmission probabilities in different settings and, if applicable, conduct a meta-analysis of the infection time frame in order to set the parameters of the risk models.
Results: The first two searches revealed 2,875 deduplicated results that are currently screened for eligibility. The targeted outcomes of the review have been adapted to the ongoing discussion on use cases and functionalities of the tool. For data synthesis, we will focus on the parameters that are implemented in the statistical models of the latest version of the tool.
Conclusion: Flexibility within an ongoing review is feasible when adhering to the rapid and living methodology. The input by the cooperating health departments led to adaptations of the tool, and, therefore, the risk models and its epidemiological parameters. Agile communication, including frequent consultations within the project consortium, is essential to successfully integrate outcome adaptations in the review process.
Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
References
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- Garritty C, Gartlehner G, Nussbaumer-Streit B, King VJ, Hamel C, Kamel C, Affengruber L, Stevens A. Cochrane Rapid Reviews Methods Group offers evidence-informed guidance to conduct rapid reviews. J Clin Epidemiol. 2021 Feb;130:13-22. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.10.007
- 2.
- Seidler A, Nußbaumer-Streit B, Apfelbacher C, Zeeb H; für die Querschnitts-AG Rapid Reviews des Kompetenznetzes Public Health zu COVID-19. Rapid Reviews in Zeiten von COVID-19 – Erfahrungen im Zuge des Kompetenznetzes Public Health zu COVID-19 und Vorschlag eines standardisierten Vorgehens [Rapid Reviews in the Time of COVID-19 - Experiences of the Competence Network Public Health COVID-19 and Proposal for a Standardized Procedure]. Gesundheitswesen. 2021 Mar;83(3):173-9. DOI: 10.1055/a-1380-0926
- 3.
- Kühne L, Brüssermann S, De Santis KK, Zeeb H. EsteR - Decision support for German health departments by risk modelling in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic – Protocol for a rapid review. OSF Preprints.2022.
