Update on COVID-19 projects

The ELF COVID-19 Patient Advisory Group (PAG) met for the first time at the beginning of September 2020. The group includes people who have had COVID-19, people with lung conditions who have been shielding during the pandemic, representatives from patient organisations and carers.

The group will provide input into several COVID-19-related projects that ELF is involved with. They will make sure that the views of patients and carers are considered at all stages of the projects.

Current projects include:

• A COVID-19 Task Force, which is producing guidelines on how people with lung conditions should be managed during and after the pandemic. A PAG representative has been helping the Task Force look at evidence and make recommendations.
• A Clinical Research Collaboration called END-COVID. This is a multi-centre research group that is looking at research priorities, the impact of COVID-19 on people with underlying lung conditions, preparing for future waves of the pandemic, and how healthcare professionals should follow-up on COVID-19 patients. The PAG has contributed by sharing their priorities for research.
• The DRAGON Project, an EU project looking at using artificial intelligence to better diagnose COVID-19 and predict the outcomes of patients. It aims to empower patients and the public to be involved in their diagnosis, care and treatment.

Find out more about the ELF COVID-19 Patient Advisory Group.

We welcome everyone who is interested in getting involved to join the PAG. We currently have representatives from Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. We want the group to be as diverse as possible, so we are particularly interested in welcoming people from other European countries to join. Although the PAG will mainly communicate in English, we will do our best to support people who are not confident in English.

If you are interested in getting involved or want to find out more, please contact Clare Williams at clare.williams@europeanlung.org