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. 2022 Mar 24;4(1):e000079.
doi: 10.1136/ihj-2021-000079. eCollection 2022.

Online networks facilitating multidisciplinary healthcare: a novel strategy to curb COVID-19

Henrieke Prins #  1 , Ineke Knijp #  2 , Gonneke Hermanides  3 , Marco Blanker #  2 , Casper Rokx #  1
Affiliations

Online networks facilitating multidisciplinary healthcare: a novel strategy to curb COVID-19

Henrieke Prins et al. Integr Healthc J. .

Abstract

Objectives: Global spread of COVID-19 at an unprecedented speed has heavily strained healthcare systems worldwide, and reliable alternatives to analogue healthcare are urgently needed.

Methods: During the first COVID-19 wave in the Netherlands, we launched six regional online networks and analysed the activity and content in a qualitative mixed-methods manner.

Results: We observed continued activity and collaboration on the platform between healthcare professionals at the different levels of care.

Conclusion: The networks described here were launched successfully and have the potential to optimise the COVID-19 response.

Keywords: Access to information; COVID-19; Clinical decision making; Communication; Implementation science.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Weekly active users (WAU) and total users per regional network since its launch. Bars represent WAU; solid black lines represent total number of users on each of the six networks. Online supplemental appendix lists which areas in the Netherlands are covered by the six regional networks.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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