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By Matthew Frese, general manager of Med Learning Group

After more than a year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global death toll attributed to the coronavirus has now topped 3.3 million people, according to a mid-May situation report released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the UAE, where the death toll has reached 1,631 (16^th May), the country’s Government has successfully vaccinated more than 70% of its eligible population and conducted more than 54 million RT-PCR tests, as per the latest news sources.

As the Arabian Gulf nation begins to look beyond the pandemic, the UAE’s Minister of Health, His Excellency AbdulRahman Al Owais, recently reaffirmed the UAE’s commitment towards employing innovative treatments and strengthening international health partnerships. With its own house increasingly in order, the UAE – a vital logistics and supply chaincorridor in global Covid-19 vaccine transportation – has also recently begun the first phase of a vaccination programme for refugees and displaced people in Iraq and Jordan.

While the UAE continues to set global benchmarks in managing the pandemic, the challenges of this moment are not few, nor are they easy to solve. One challenge is that information is scattered and often without the necessary verification to be considered reliable.Looking at this challenge in a global scenario, it is hugely important for patient and caregiver communities to be able to access crucial information from a reliable resource platform.

As the adage goes, knowledge is power and not all countries have been as effective as the UAE in controlling domestic misinformation and fake news surrounding the pandemic. This is why the Continuing Medical Education industry has created FRONTLINE (www.covid-frontline.com) – a resourceplatform designed to keep doctors and the community informed about the latest updates, guidelines, trends and resources related to the coronavirus.

FRONTLINE has tools to support medical specialists, clinicians, patients and caregivers in the search for the right sources of information to keep up to date with the growing data of COVID-19. The platform contains predictors of disease severity, pathophysiology, symptoms, treatments, vaccines, as well as information on how Covid-19 affects the health professionals and their capacity to care for existing patients. The free to access platform also enlightens readers on the latest approved treatments, such as monoclonal antibody therapy, which recently had emergency use approved in Brazil.

Since its launch, the site has become a trusted resource for education and updates on the coronavirus, with over 1.25 million views. According to our statistics, the professionals who took part in FRONTLINE education have demonstrated a 27% gain in knowledge and a 25% gain in competence.

All of this was only possible thanks to the joint effort made with institutions such as the U.S.A.’s National Infusion Center Association, Infograph-Ed and Fundação Heroes of Lorna Breen, India’s Public Health Foundation, as well as AbbVie, Astellas, Genentech, Merck & Co., Inc., Lilly, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, who came together to promote health and enable initiatives to fight the coronavirus.

In the fight against Covid-19, harnessing the power of international public-private partnerships – the type of initiatives being explored by the UAE – is key to our global family moving on from the pandemic.