Where Expertise is pooled into COVID-19
Sociologist Prof. Dr. Peter Kriwy from Chemnitz is the spokesman of the section of medical and health sociology of the German Sociological Association and is involved in the competence network Public Health on COVID-19
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In his research at Chemnitz University of Technology, Prof. Dr. Peter Kriwy was also concerned with the evaluation of the effect of apps on health behaviour. Photo: Picture archive of the press office and cross-media editorial staff/Sven Gleisberg
COVID-19 poses an enormous threat to the health and living conditions of people worldwide. Since it is an infection due to a new type of virus, there is a lack of reliable data and information in almost all areas. In order to counteract this, the Section of Medical and Health Sociology of the German Sociological Association (DGS) joined forces last week with more than 20 professional associations of German-speaking health research and medical societies to form the Competence Network Public Health on COVID-19, in order to bundle epidemiological-statistical, social scientific, (population) medical and methodological expertise. Speaker of the section of medical and health sociology of the DGS is Prof. Dr. Peter Kriwy, Professor of Sociology with focus on Health Research at Chemnitz University of Technology.
"The aim of the competence network is to pool existing knowledge on different facets of the pandemic and make it available to both science and politics in a timely manner," said Kriwy. The Competence Network Public Health on COVID-19 currently has eleven working groups covering various areas such as indirect health consequences of infection control measures, health aspects of social isolation, risk communication and perception, health and work. "The thematic orientation of the working groups was developed by the persons responsible for the competence network in cooperation with the Robert Koch-Institute," said Kriwy.
The research focus of the professorship headed by Kriwy at Chemnitz University of Technology in the field of health sociology includes regional health inequalities, evaluation of health-related interventions, analysis of rare diseases and health-related events, potential assessment for the use of telemedicine, equity aspects in health care and the influence of digitalisation on health behaviour.
Homepage of the Competence Network Public Health on COVID-19: https://www.public-health-covid19.de
For further information please contact Prof. Dr. Peter Kriwy, Phone 0371 531-32483, E-mail peter.kriwy@soziologie.tu-chemnitz.de
(Author: Mario Steinebach / Translation: Chelsea Burris)
Matthias Fejes
21.04.2020
