ANTICIPATE : Artificial Intelligence and Epidemic Modeling to Prepare Hospitals for the next Respiratory Pathogen with Pandemic Potential 138

Emerging infectious diseases have a significant impact on public health and the global economy, of which we have recently been reminded by the devastating SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To stand better prepared for such calamities, caused by a respiratory virus with pandemic potential (RVPP), there are two main research fronts that demand action from a hospital perspective. Firstly, we should aim to
avoid that the emergence of a RVPP causes a pandemic. This requires a symptom-driven platform for the rapid discovery of novel pathogens, for which hospitals and general practitioners constitute a primary target. When such a platform is deployed globally, it will increase the likelihood to vanquish outbreaks before they become a pandemic. Nonetheless, such a failsafe will never be perfect, and even when detected in time, certain pathogens will be difficult to contain. Therefore, secondly, we should be prepared to safeguard our hospital capacity, to facilitate proper care to infected individuals with severe symptoms, and to enable continuity of care for those not infected.
To meet these goals, we will 1) combine the use of epidemiological models to simulate the spread and containment of a respiratory viral pathogen in a hospital setting, and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize mitigation policies and to plan ahead for a wide range of pandemic scenarios, 2) develop and evaluate genome sequencing-based diagnostics tools to facilitate continuous monitoring of novel
viral pathogens. We assembled a multi-disciplinary consortium to address the distinct challenges related to AI, biostatistics, health economics, molecular diagnostics and public health. To allow for continuous feedback from all relevant stakeholders throughout the project, we set up an (inter)national advisory
board that includes hospitals, general practitioners, governmental bodies, mutualities, and scientists with expertise in genomics, diagnostics and public health.