The different regional courses of the COVID-19 pandemic and the different regional care and decision-making structures in a federal system require regionally adaptable pandemic management concepts that are based on knowledge of national and international excellence and approaches and should be scientifically sound.

With this objective in mind, the joint project egePan Unimed (Development, testing and implementation of regionally adaptive supply structures and processes for evidence-led pandemic management coordinated by university hospitals) was launched on 1 August 2020 under the leadership of the university hospitals in Dresden (Carl Gustav Carus) and Frankfurt (University Hospital Frankfurt).

The task of the project was to review and harmonise pandemic management concepts in Germany and internationally, evaluate their practicability using scientific methods and integrate them into a framework plan.

The overarching objectives were the adequate management of resources within a region to avoid inefficient occupancy of intensive care and care capacities in the inpatient sector and the consensus-based management of patients along a patient pathway, including for patients not requiring hospitalisation.