gms | German Medical Science

Background and status of (inter)national research: Local communication pathways experienced exhaustion during the pandemic in many areas in Germany. Some areas reported lack of information flow, unclear information and little communication with local health authorities [1]. Email and telephone were the most commonly used media requiring both high staff and time resources [2]. Surveys and focus groups in the first phase of our project revealed that communication experience during the “first and second wave” of the pandemic were dissatisfying and that the need of real-time information between sectors was high. Consequently, we rapidly implemented an instant messaging application in the Rhein-Main-area for general practitioners, public health workers and the university hospital to provide asynchronous information flow in Covid 19-related topics and regional management of the pandemic. Eventually, we assessed challenges in implementation, usability of the tool and communication experience. The project is one of the various projects within egePan Unimed. The focus of egePan Unimed “Development, testing and implementation of regional management structures and processes for evidence-led pandemic management coordinated by university medicine” is to look at the pandemic management concepts in Germany and internationally, to evaluate their practicability with scientific methods and to integrate them into a framework plan.

Question and objective: Can Secure Instant Massaging (SIM) supply useful additional communication pathways between local health providers and meet the need for an intersectional real time information flow in times of the Covid-19 pandemic?

Method: We implemented an application for secure instant messaging in two model regions for general practitioners and local health authorities. From November 2020 on, participants started to use the application. Until now about 50 users have inscripted. By semi-structured interviews of 10–15 participants we plan to assess usage practices and communication experiences, so that we can explore the usability of the application and the potential changes in professional communication between health care providers induced by SIM on a local basis. All interviews will be transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Results will be available at the conference.