The project kick-off meeting was successfully held on March 30, 2020 with full consortium participation. The meeting was performed online due to travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Lionis, as the principal investigatorof the program, welcomed all partners who presented their teams, organizations and fields of interest, along with their perspective for and expectations of the project. The forthcoming activities, milestones and deliverables were analysed through a review of the work packages, while the role of each partner were also discussed. The particularities of the primary care systems among the three countries were compared and their impact on project implementation was addressed. Emerging challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic were also brought into discussion.
Key messages of the kick-off meeting were
- NAFLD/NASH is an important issue for European primary care and our project can contribute to addressing practice gaps and bottle necks.
- To facilitate our project objectives and achieve a high level of dissemination and sustainability, multidisciplinary national and international collaborations are necessary and will be pursued via the partners’ stakeholder networks.
- COVID-19 may pose important challenges for chronic care and research, however all partners will be committed to the timely project delivery of scheduled activities.
