Vitebsk State Medical University launches an online forum dedicated to the clinic, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19 from the standpoint of evidence-based medicine. Login link is https://do2.vsmu.by/course/view.php?id=2763. 

The resource is intended both to provide methodological assistance to practical specialists (including students who provide assistance to the health care of the region), and to satisfy the curiosity of students and staff of VSMU, eliminate doubts, refute harmful myths, increase our professionalism, strengthen self-confidence and joint victory over pandemic COVID-19.

The forum is expected to contain the following sections:

1. Section with current regulatory documentation (Orders of the Ministry of Health regarding various issues of working with adult patients and children infected with COVID-19). The content of this section will be constantly updated. In addition, the normative documentation of other countries can be placed in this section in order to compare the therapeutic approaches.

2. News section. It will contain current news about COVID-19, as well as publications about methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of this disease with proven or refuted effectiveness. The moderators will ensure the search and placement on the resource of only verified information based on clinical trials of a sufficiently high methodological quality. 

3. Subject forums and chats. In this section you may ask questions to experienced clinicians from the staff of VSMU, who have experience in diagnosing and treating COVID-19 and its complications – and get an answer (if it is known to modern medicine); you can also suggest topics for discussion in moderated forums and chats. It is assumed the possibility of creating separate conversations within the framework of the general chat, dedicated to certain topical and popular issues.

At first, the resource will operate in a test mode, based on the System of Distance Education VSMU, and access to it will be provided only to VSMU students and staff after entering the login and password.

The group of moderators will be led by an infectious disease specialist Ivan Viktorovich Zhiltsov, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Head of the Department of Evidence-Based Medicine and Clinical Diagnostics of the Faculty of Advanced Training and Staff Retraining, who has been consulting patients with COVID-19 in clinics of the city and region since spring 2020. He will also monitor the reliability of the information posted in the news section.

Further development of the forum is planned; in this regard, we are asking our respected users to provide feedback, telling us what exactly and how can be improved.