The Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) has been designed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to collect and organize up-to-date information on how countries are responding to the crisis. It focuses primarily on the responses of health systems but also captures wider public health initiatives. This is a joint undertaking of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.


Click here for policy recommendations and technical guidance from the WHO Regional Office for Europe on how to strengthen the health systems response to COVID-19 and click here for the EU coronavirus response in the area of public health.

Webinar series on the COVID-19 response

Each Tuesday from 27 October to 8 December 2020

The COVID-19 HSRM webinar series

Europe's governments are again struggling to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus and to gear health systems up to meet new surges. They are implementing or tightening measures to prevent transmission and looking to strengthen infrastructure and workforce capacity, health services provision and health systems governance overall.

The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies is launching a series of webinars which draw lessons from country experiences in all these areas. They will look at how health systems can respond to the pandemic and what makes them more resilient to external shocks and crises.

About the webinars

  • The webinars will be delivered as a series of 1-hour online-sessions.
  • The series includes 5 thematic webinars and 3 webinars on groups of countries (see table below).
  • Each webinar will include a keynote speaker and speakers who will spotlight country experience.
  • Questions and comments (through the Q/A and chat box) will be encouraged.
  • The webinars are linked to forthcoming special issues of Eurohealth and the journal Health Policy.

This series draws on the COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor (HSRM) which collects and organizes up-to-date information on how countries are responding to the COVID-19 crisis across the whole European Region. It focuses primarily on the responses of health systems, but also captures wider public health initiatives and has been able to deliver cross country analysis on some of the most pressing challenges. The HSRM has been delivered by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies as a joint undertaking with and for the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Commission.

Links for registration for the individual webinars are provided below. You are encouraged to register early because it will allow the presenters to understand the mix of people taking part and adjust their plans accordingly, but registration will remain open until just before the webinar.

The COVID-19 HSRM webinar series

Note: all times are CET time

Date Title and keynote speaker

27 Oct

12:00-13:00

Preventing COVID-19 transmission: Meeting the challenge of scaling-up population testing

Keynote:
Selina Rajan, LSHTM
Spotlight speakers:
Alisha Morsella, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
Hanna Ermann, Technical University Berlin, Germany
Lucie Bryndová, Charles University Prague, Czech Republic

27 Oct

14:00-15:00

Governing in the COVID-19 pandemic: Centralization within and between governments

Keynote:
Scott L Greer, University of Michigan
Spotlight speakers:
Sarah Rozenblum, University of Michigan
Holly Jarman, University of Michigan

03 Nov

12:00-13:00

Hospital care and COVID-19: Balancing surge capacity and regular services

Keynote:
Erin Webb, Technical University Berlin
Spotlight speakers:
Sarah Reed, Nuffield Trust, UK
Patrick Jeurissen, Radboud University Medical School & Science Officer at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports in the Netherlands
Enrique Bernal Delgado, IACS, Spain
Discussant:
Melitta Jakab, WHO Europe

10 Nov

12:00-13:00

Health financing and COVID-19: Balancing financial incentives for sustaining health services

Keynote:
Ruth Waitzberg & Wilm Quentin, Technical University Berlin
Spotlight speakers:
Wulf Dietrich Leber, National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), Berlin, Germany
Marc Schreiner, BKG, Germany
Marie-Camille Lenormand, CNAM, France
Cristoph Sowada, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland (TBC)

17 Nov

12:00-13:00

The health workforce and COVID-19: Protecting health workers while maintaining surge capacity

Keynote:
Gemma Williams, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
Spotlight speakers:
Juliane Winkelmann, Technical University Berlin
Discussant:
JACOB, Gabrielle Jacob, WHO Europe

24 Nov

12:00-13:00

Nordic countries and COVID-19 health systems responses

Keynote:
Karsten Vrangbæk, Copenhagen University

01 Dec

12:00-13:00

Social health insurance countries and COVID-19 health systems responses

Keynote:
Andrea Schmidt, Austrian Public Health Institute

08 Dec

12:00-13:00

Visegrád countries and COVID-19 health systems responses

Keynote:
Olga Löblová, University of Cambridge