Huge response to COVID-19 online platform for physicians in private practice
Since Tuesday evening, the online platform www.kl.ac.at/coronavirus has been offering secure, up-to-date and well-founded recommendations for action for doctors in private practice. These recommendations are made available by doctors for doctors after prior review, analysis and daily updates. The new information platform recorded more than 15,000 hits in the first 24 hours.
This initiative of Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences (KL) together with the Austrian Society of General Medicine (ÖGAM) closes an information gap in the central primary care sector in Austria. Particularly physicians in private practice are faced with day-to-day challenges in times of crisis in primary health care. In addition to the continual provision of medical care for all patients, they usually lack the time and resources to maintain an overview of the ever-changing findings in connection with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and to check the reliability of sources.
The Competence Center for General and Family Medicine recently established at the Karl Landsteiner Private University (KL) in Krems has launched a platform on Tuesday that provides the medical community with exactly this service in a continuously updated form. In addition to a detailed description of the clinic and its course, at www.kl.ac.at/coronavirus all recommendations for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 related illnesses are available, which are based on current scientific standards in the best and most reliable form obtainable. Tips for the necessary reorganization of the daily practice routine are provided, experts give recommendations on hygiene and protective measures as well as on how to deal with suspected COVID cases in the surgery.
Within a dedicated HELPDESK, the platform's organisers also deal with questions and problems of the physicians on a daily basis and answer these as best they can according to the current status of the official recommendations and measures as well as the findings from the field. In addition, the HELPDESK accepts numerous suggestions and experiences from colleagues, which are then evaluated and published in a suitable form on the online portal.
The Competence Centre for General and Family Medicine at the Karl Landsteiner Private University for Health Sciences (KL) has the promotion, research and teaching of general and family medicine as its mission and is supported by the Niederösterreichische Forschungs- und Bildungsgesellschaft m.b.H. (NFB). The tasks of the competence centre include the planning, coordination and implementation of research and teaching in general and family medicine. Scientific studies and publications as well as the teaching and support of students are a priority. The aim is to contribute to the strengthening and attractiveness of general and family medicine as well as to quality assurance and further development of the subject with reference to methodological and clinical skills.
