The main challenge for the application of BLCMs in the evaluation of diagnostic tests and the true prevalence estimation lies in the lack of adequate communication, knowledge transfer and collaboration between experts in the field and researchers working in statistics, epidemiology, diagnostics and population health.
HARMONY addresses the barriers that currently limit the use of BLCMs. To this end, emphasis is placed on bridging the gap between experts in the field and researchers, stakeholders and policy makers in statistics, epidemiology and public health.
This is expected to be a dynamic two-way process: on the one hand, BLCM experts providing training material, easy-to-use software code and interactive web applications while, on the other hand, epidemiologists, diagnosticians, public health experts and policy makers raising challenges that need to be addressed for the proper evaluation of diagnostics, prevalence estimation and certification of disease freedom.
The main strength of HARMONY lies in the diverse group of interested and relevant experts and stakeholders that will collaborate.
The project team is divided in five working groups:
- Working Group 1 (WG1): Coordination & Involvement of stakeholders
- Working Group 2 (WG2): Evaluation of diagnostic tests with BLCMs
- Working Group 3 (WG3): Estimation of true disease prevalence with BLCMs
- Working Group 4 (WG4): Certification of disease freedom BLCMs
- Working Group 5 (WG5): Networking and knowledge sharing