COVID-19 & an NGO and university developed interactive portal: a perspective from Iran

On 19 February 2020, Iran reported the initial cases of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). As of 21 March 2020, Iran had reported 175,927 COVID-19 cases, including 8425 deaths. One of the best approaches for responding to COVID-19 is rapid detection, early isolation, and quick treatment of the disease. Studies have stated that information technology (IT) is a powerful tool for detecting, tracking, and responding to pandemic diseases. Despite the importance of IT, a lack of efficient use of information technology capacity was observed after the emergence of the new cases of COVID-19 in Iran. A web-portal can integrate different services and technologies and can support interaction between non-governmental organizations (NGO) and universities. NGOs can provide services for public health utilizing technology and its advancements. One of the important duties of these organizations is to inform and provide integrated services to the general public. An interactive portal is one of the advanced technologies that these organizations can use for health management. Medical sciences of universities play a vital surveillance role for enhancing the performance quality of NGOs. A web-portal can be a collaboration tool between health-related NGOs and medical sciences of universities. In this study, an interactive portal was developed by NGOs and a university. NGOs under the supervision and participation of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences’ Center for Social Factors Research in COVID-19 management division of this portal separated classified information into two sections, informatics and services. This portal is accessible to the general public, patients, service providers, and, importantly, policymakers and presents educational and medical research information to all users. For patients and the general public in high-risk environments, increasing information security, reducing confusion regarding finding needed information, and facilitating communication are only part of the portal’s benefit. It seems that web-portal capacity is needed to control COVID-19 in the digital age. The collaboration of academic and university bodies in the context of health portals can play key roles for coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.