Crisis learning is critical for ensuring that better actions are taken for an impending or a future crisis. Learning from past epidemics enables public health authorities to assess aspects of the overall response system to improve the system. Moreover, learning during a crisis makes it possible to develop an approach to address unique and rapidly evolving epidemic situations. In this study, the literature was reviewed, and interviews were conducted with a director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a regulatory manager of a multinational medical equipment company. On the basis of that research, this article examines how crisis learning has facilitated a South Korean disease control agency’s surveillance of infectious diseases and its development of in vitro diagnosis kits. Those kits enabled qualified private health providers to diagnose COVID-19 infections in cooperation with multiple partners in the early period of the outbreak response. The agency’s learning from a past epidemic crisis, shared sense-making, and proactive efforts helped the nation to flatten the curve of the numbers of the confirmed cases in a short period of time. This study provides insights for national public health authorities tackling infectious disease outbreaks.

中文翻译：

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危机学习和拉平曲线：韩国对 COVID-19 感染的快速大规模诊断

危机学习对于确保针对即将发生或未来的危机采取更好的行动至关重要。从过去的流行病中学习使公共卫生当局能够评估整体应对系统的各个方面以改进系统。此外，在危机期间学习可以开发一种方法来应对独特且迅速演变的流行病情况。在这项研究中，回顾了文献，并与韩国疾病预防控制中心的一位主任和一家跨国医疗设备公司的监管经理进行了访谈。在该研究的基础上，本文探讨了危机学习如何促进韩国疾病控制机构对传染病的监测及其体外诊断试剂盒的开发。这些试剂盒使合格的私人卫生服务提供者能够在疫情应对的早期与多个合作伙伴合作诊断 COVID-19 感染。该机构从过去的流行病危机中吸取教训，分享意义和积极努力，帮助该国在短时间内拉平了确诊病例数的曲线。这项研究为国家公共卫生当局应对传染病爆发提供了见解。