Leveraging the Public Health Emergency Operation Center (PHEOC) for pandemic response: opportunities and challenges

摘要

Public Health Emergency Operation Center (PHEOC) was conceptualized and established for coordinatinginformation and resources towards goal-oriented response in large scale public health emergency. Yet, theactivities undertaken by PHEOCs and their intended goals have not been fully optimized in current scenario.This paper revisited the collective efforts invested in PHEOC conceptualization and development, identified theopportunities and challenges in compliance with standards and framework, demonstrated the accountabilityof PHEOC network, thereby promoted best practice guidance for global public health emergency preparednessand response. This review will help navigate emergency response complexities leveraging PHEOC partnershipsand advance the ability to detect and respond to public health emergencies in low resource settings. The reviewshows that the information on how to adapt best practice guidance to local circumstances could incentivizethe full implementation of prevention, early detection and response to outbreaks. Identifying and correctingdeficiencies in effectiveness evaluation will provide the basis for continuous PHEOC improvement. With thegradually reopening economies and public services in some countries, there is an urgent need to emphasize andvalidate the collective efforts undertaken by PHEOCs for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.