Successful VITAL General Assembly 2020
On October 7th and 8th the VITAL General Assembly 2020 took place. The General Assembly is a meeting for all partners involved in the VITAL project to discuss progress and results within the different Work Packages (WP) and receive feedback of the Scientific Advisory Board and the Innovate Medicine Initiative (IMI) project manager. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the many partners involved in work related to the pandemic, this meeting was held online. On both days more than 60 people joined the meeting.
Work in Progress
A lot of work has been conducted in the second year of the VITAL project. Highlights of the work and results of the different work packages have been shared during the meeting. Also every Work Package has shared their plans for the coming year.
- WP1 started working on their Data Source Review with the aim that their review can be published in this year. Also the protocol of the retrospective study and the synopsis of the prospective study were written and submitted. As soon as data for the retrospective study is received from FISABIO and SSI Denmark, the team can start analyzing and write a report. The prospective study will include Quality of Life (QoL) aspects and data collection will start soon.
- WP2 had as main objective to perform a clinical vaccination study during the first 2 years of the project and enroll all patients for the vaccinations and follow-up. Due to COVID-19 this part of the study had been put on hold for 4 months. Therefore WP2 will finalize the clinical study next year September instead of March. Also the team will start analyzing the first important data on influenza antibodies expected soon and write the first results. The study team will start planning the first in-depth analysis as well.
- WP3 has been gathering information on different aspects such as heterogeneity in aging adults related to ID and the management options of ID and expressing clinical outcome in costs. The information is needed for the next steps in their overall plan. The following steps are obtaining different health economic models and merge them to do a health economic evaluation. The new model will first be applied on 2 countries and later a further extension will be done.
- WP4 has performed a focus group study in which they obtained knowledge on the perception towards vaccinations and information needs of aging adults. Also this study aids in understanding and pinpointing important networks. The results of the network analysis showed interesting differences between the countries that should be taken note of when addressing communication towards elderly. The team is writing 2 reports on educational strategies and interventions. Next year the team will assess the viewpoint of the needs for the Health care workers.
‘What I have heard during the meeting is very interesting, you are moving forward quite well and I’m positive for the early review the project has to go through’.
COVID-19
The first session was closed with a presentation by Peter Openshaw on data of the pathogenesis of SARS-C0V-2. It was clearly demonstrated that age was the most important factor associated with severe infection outcome. As the VITAL project is focused on on improving vaccination strategies in aging adults, the data shown is emphasizing the importance of the project.
