Launch of the Doctor-to-Doctor Report 2020

One year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Forward Thinking and the Order of Malta are pleased to launch a report outlining the main findings emerging from a series of workshops held throughout 2020 with health specialists and policymakers from all over the world.

This “Doctor to Doctor” project was launched in March 2020 in the wake of the health emergency to create a learning platform for experts to enable a better understanding of the Coronavirus. A primary aim was to offer support to health experts in the most vulnerable and fragile states in the Middle East, particularly those suffering from conflict.

Over the course of 2020, some 150 experts from Australia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Yemen and the World Health Organization participated in the ongoing dialogue.

The project soon became a valuable tool to share with health experts a rapidly changing understanding of the virus, its transmission, and the best approaches for managing COVID-19 patients. It also served as a shared platform to exchange empirical findings to allow countries with initially fewer cases- especially in the Middle East region- to learn and be better prepared drawing from the experience of other countries in Europe who had faced the emergency at an earlier stage.

We want to thank all the health experts and institutions who have participated to date and hope the project made a small contribution to their ongoing efforts to control and cope with the virus. With the continued support of the Order of Malta, we will be planning further meetings of the project throughout 2021.