Dr. Berit Lange, acting head of the “Epidemiology” department at the HZI, is the coordinator of the new INFRALINK network. In addition, the health departments of Frankfurt am Main (PD Peter Tinnemann) and Cologne (Dr. Annelene Kossow) - two of the largest health departments in Germany - and the North Rhine-Westphalia Health Centre (Dr. Annette Jurke) are involved in the development of the network. Further health departments will be involved through joint pilot projects. Prof. André Karch, Head of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Münster, Prof. Florian Klein, Director of Virology at Cologne University Hospital, and PD Katja de With, Head of Clinical Infectiology at Dresden University Hospital, are also part of the consortium as research partners.
One focus of the kick-off meeting was the planning of network establishment. The integration of existing networks and platforms for epidemiological cohort studies, such as MuSPAD and modeling consortia such as RESPINOW and MONID as research infrastructures with the public health service was also discussed. FORGE360 (Prof. Stefan Ehehalt) and the ÖGDForte network (Dr. Kerstin Schmidt) as well as the NLGA (Dr. Johannes Dreesmann) also presented themselves as organizations to be involved at an early stage.
“With INFRALINK, we want to create something that has become apparent as a gap in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a network in which research institutions and the public health service collaborate agilely and supra-regionally for infection research,” says Berit Lange, explaining the main motivation for the initiative.
