The Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA) has had a monumental first year since it was launched in 2019.
As we marked this milestone, we looked back over the last 12 months, in what has been an unprecedented year.
J-IDEA's mission is to combat disease threats around the world.
Headquartered at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, the Institute brings together researchers working in global health to advance methods and real-world application of data analytics to identify and support effective action and investment into population health globally.
The Institute has three core research themes – responding to health emergencies, strengthening health systems and building partnerships and capacity.
Here are some highlights of its first year:
COVID-19 response
"Our epidemiological models have been vital in informing policy, and our work has been vital in informing policy, and our work has been disseminated all over the world" Professor Neil Ferguson Director of J-IDEA
Under the responding to health emergencies research theme, the team have concentrated on the emergency response to COVID-19.
Just weeks after the Institute launched, the World Health Organisation declared SARS-CoV-2 a global pandemic in March 2020.
The Institute, with other collaborators, had established the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team who have produced 40 reports, eight tools and 21 publications to date.
The reports mentioned above have provided timely evidence to inform our partners and governments around the world on the optimal policies to control the pandemic, mitigate adverse social and economic impacts and ensure a more resilient health system response.
Within strengthening health systems, Dr Katharina Hauck and the team developed a hospital planning tool which calculates how much capacity for the urgent treatment of COVID-19 patients (in terms of beds, staff and ventilators) can be obtained with interventions such as cancelling elective surgery and re-organising health care.
