Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed gaps in preparedness for large-scale health emergencies, highlighting vulnerabilities within communities and systems. Widespread distrust and skepticism towards innovative tools were common. To better manage future crises, it is crucial to integrate these tools, including information technology and AI-driven solutions, while actively engaging civil society organizations, citizens (especially vulnerable and non compliant groups), policy-makers, and health authorities. The PREPSHIELD project aims to foster a holistic, citizen-centered approach to health crisis management by developing policy recommendations and innovative tools. Methods: Launched on September 1, 2024, with 13 partners, the PREPSHIELD project will run for three years. It will begin by identifying challenges and best practices from past epidemics and pandemics, focusing on areas such as healthcare response and communication with non-compliant groups. These insights will inform the development of crisis management tools, including a mobile app and an online platform, as well as policy recommendations. These will be tested through tabletop and online exercises at three pilot sites, each representing different scales and levels of institutional trust: the city of Hamburg, Piedmont Region, and Romania. Results: PREPSHIELD will deliver several key outcomes, including policy recommendations and tools for more inclusive pandemic management. A mobile application will be developed to provide educational content, information, alerts, and polls, while also allowing citizens to report data such as well-being, mental state, concerns, and alerts. This data will be linked to a platform designed to enhance situational awareness and support multi-actor decision making. Conclusion: By promoting an inclusive and innovative approach to disaster management, PREPSHIELD will enhance pandemic preparedness but also provide insights for other types of disasters. WADEM provides a key platform to share this project and its preliminary findings with a community of disaster practitioners and scholars. This project is funded by the European Union.
Trentin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.