The ANSI Federation and standardization community are stepping up with guidance, resources, and initiatives to support public health, safety, and infrastructure during the COVID-19 outbreak. ANSI is monitoring, sharing, and promoting appropriate news to highlight these efforts. Suggestions for news items may be submitted to [email protected]. All submissions are published at ANSI's discretion.
CTA Launches The Public Health Tech Initiative to Respond to Future Pandemics, ANSI Health and Tech Members Join
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) has announced that it has convened major technology and health leaders to work on response plans for future public health emergencies and pandemics like COVID-19, through its new collaborative called The Public Health Tech Initiative. Steering committee members include representatives from ANSI members Microsoft, Facebook, CVS Health, and Philips, in addition to the American College of Cardiology, Brookings, Doctor On Demand, Geisinger, Health Innovation Alliance, Northwell Health, Providence, ResMed, SSM Health, and UCHealth.
As digital health has provided a solution for thousands of patients to get treatments during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, CTA reports that the group will consider greater adoption of technology to improve the nation's response, preparedness, and recovery for future public health crises, which include pandemics, infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, biological or chemical terror attacks, and emerging threats.
A white paper is underway to cover lessons and outcomes learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The group will analyze what has worked and examine response challenges, including the lack of access to services and technology, and the lack of coordination among sectors. The goal is to provide recommendations for the U.S. to better address future public health emergencies.
"The response to COVID-19 in the U.S. has highlighted the huge demand for health technology solutions," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. "Our forward-looking initiative identifies what needs to change when we are hit by a similar pandemic or another emergency in the future. The group includes leading experts who are on the frontlines of dealing with COVID-19, and we hope to create a blueprint that will guide the effective use of technology to combat these scenarios in the future."
CTA will host a webinar on August 5, 2020, Using Technology to Combat Future Public Health Emergencies, to shed light on the new initiative.
Read more about the initiative in CTA's recent press release.
ANSI Members to Join Clean 2020 Summit, with Segment on Current State and Next Steps for Guidance and Standards during COVID-19
Experts from ANSI members ASHRAE, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), NSF International,and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will give presentations at the virtual Clean 2020 Summit, to give insights the current state and next steps for guidance and standards, as well as best practices to minimize risk and manage impacts of COVID-19.
The event, which will be held on August 5, 13, and 25, will include in-depth discussions on the scientific, economic, and social impact of the complex interactions of viral transmission in the built environment. The summit agenda will cover assessing the challenges in returning to routine operations faced by the hospitality, food safety, resort and transportation industries, and a discussion of best practices, data-driven solutions and innovative technologies to help people feel confident and safe in the places where they choose to congregate.
ANSI members will speak during two sessions on August 5, including Current State and Next-steps for Guidance and Standards, toprovide an overview of the standards, guidance, and regulatory interface landscape, current state of efforts, near-term and long-term strategies, and remaining technical challenges. During Innovations and Emerging Best Practices, experts will share lessons learned from working to minimize risk and manage the impacts of COVID-19.
Find out more about the event and speakers in ANSI's recent announcement, Clean Summit 2020 to Focus on How Science and Innovation Can Support a Healthy Built Environment, with Insights from ANSI Members
U.S. Pharmacopeia Announces Free Resources for 6 Months to Support COVID-19
U.S. Pharmacopeia has announced that it is opening access for resources to assist scientists, developers, and manufacturers working on new vaccines and treatments, scaling up production of approved drugs, and advancing other projects to address COVID-19. The company is granting access to the United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary (USP-NF).Online free for 6 months, a resource with standards for medicines, dosage forms, drug substances, excipients, biologics, compounded preparations, medical devices, dietary supplements, and other therapeutics.
The resources in USP-NF can support:
Trial offers must be activated by August 30, 2020, and are applicable to those who are not current subscribers to the USP-NF Online platform.
Find out more about complimentary access to USP-NF Online, with instructions on how to get started.
See more ANSI member efforts in the ANSI COVID-19 Resource Webpage Highlighting Standardization Community Response Efforts.