SCOPE Workshop

On September 28^th, a workshop was held as part of the SCOPE project, coordinated by CERENA and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology. The project's objective is to demonstrate that Spatial Data Science can be successfully used to provide a functional software prototype for managing spatial risks during epidemic events, with daily updates of risk indicator maps to support the decision-making of public health physicians in future epidemic/pandemic situations.

The SCOPE workshop was organized in collaboration with the Department of Epidemiology at the Dr. Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health and the CERENA and ITI Research Units at the Instituto Superior Técnico. The main objectives of the SCOPE workshop were: (1) to allow public health physicians at the local, regional, and national levels to interact with the prototype and promote learning in the use of this tool, exploring and analyzing spatial data; and (2) to identify possible areas for improvement based on the professional experience of the users, including evaluating its usefulness, feasibility in healthcare services, and potential associated costs.

In this event, in addition to the project's technical team, composed by Manuel Ribeiro (CERENA), Ana Pires (ITI) and Carlos Dias, Mafalda Uva, Carlos Aniceto and Ana Cristina Garcia (INSA) there were 39 public health physicians representing various Health Center Groups in the country, as well as the Regional Health Administrations of the North, Center, and Algarve, and the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health.