Biomedical and clinical engineering contribution in WHO response for Covid-19 pandemic

For the first time after decades, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed to a scenario of limited resources also high-income countries such as Europe or USA. This made even more clear the importance of disaster preparedness and responsible innovation. After providing a quick summary of the World Health Organization (WHO) response to the Covid-19, this chapiter introduces the concept of preparedness, leading the readers into the USA Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Hierarchy of Control model applied to Covid-19, and the need for medical intelligence in order to prevent future disasters. The chapiter focuses on the WHO priorities for innovations, analysing the limits of regulatory frameworks and international standards for medical devices and PPE. Finally, the last section reports few considerations about ethical issues as faced by the authors.