IT firm touts vaccine management app

A St Lucia-based computer software company has come forward with a new app it claims can help Caribbean medical authorities manage often-chaotic COVID-19 immunisation programmes.

Digitised Solutions Limited describes its I-Vax web application to allow early identification of anyone willing to be vaccinated.

The developers said I-Vax is extremely user-friendly and will provide quick registration by requiring individuals to input their date-of-birth and a valid national ID number. This information is then validated against national databases to prevent invalid registration, the company said.

I-Vax will then allow registrants to schedule a vaccination appointment based on available time slots configured for the vaccination site and, when applicable, I-Vax will even send early reminders for follow-up vaccination, it said.

Digitised Solutions explained that working closely with local doctors, I-Vax would provide a console for medical professionals to record and access information collected during triage, post-vaccination observations and self-reporting of suspected cases of adverse and side-effects by those vaccinated.

“Information collected will then be used to provide real-time dashboard statistics such as the percentage of a population that has been vaccinated fully and partially, by city, town, village and nationally, likewise for the number of nationals awaiting vaccination,” the company said in a statement.

Giving an assurance that data collected would be secure, Data Solutions said that two of the main features of the app’s infrastructure are the digital vaccine certificate as set out by World Health Organization specifications of the International Health Regulation (IHR) and digital vaccine verification using highly secure standard data protection protocols and terms of use that are in keeping with data security rules set by the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Data Solutions Limited, which was officially registered last August, declared that I-Vax provides the most efficient means to collect vaccination data for analysis and reporting.

“The I-Vax helps enforce restrictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 due to the ease at which vaccinated persons could be identified either for the purpose of national COVID-19 policies or future international obligations which will require vaccination before travel,” the St Lucian company said.

Additional features of I-Vax include scheduled management based on available clinicians at a given site, contact-less appointment processing using QR-Code, offline registration to facilitate vaccine registration outreach programmes undertaken by healthcare workers, and in-built chat for direct access to health professionals associated with the vaccination programme.

“Although I-Vax could be an integral part of the government’s short- to long-term strategy that guarantees effective use of limited state resources, a high-quality communications plan is key to its success. As such, we have developed an I-Vax communications strategy that ensures a high measure of public outreach and consistent messaging on the importance of registering for the vaccine,” it said.

The software would first be tested by Digitised Solutions’ quality control team, and countries are given a period to test their own controls. The software could then be further customized to country-specific requirements as part of a phased rollout.

“I-Vax is estimated to take six weeks for a phased rollout at an affordable cost that is tailored to the client’s needs. The cost includes software development, high-quality video tutorials and campaign promotional material for television, radio and print,” a company representative explained.