Combine healthtech with data for a successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout
Temperature. Number of doses. Patient history. Efficacy. Adverse events. In order to remain safe and effective, the vaccine has a long list of requirements that need to be met.
At some point we have to admit that technology is more capable than us. Not in all areas -- but when it comes to large amounts of data, say during a vaccine rollout, this rings true.
So how can healthtech solutions actually change the way we manage and use data, and ultimately save the Covid-19 vaccine rollout?
Our Founder and President, Joan Melendez, published her thoughts in MedCity News, looking at how healthtech innovation can make the Covid-19 vaccine rollout a success:
Replace inefficient practices with more effective technology. Technology’s main benefit to us is to make processes easier, quicker, and more accurate. AI and machine learning in particular are considered useful tools for trend recognition and data capture.
By using workflow automation tools, manufacturers and healthcare facilities can eliminate manual processes that prove to be inefficient and ineffective.
Digitized post-vaccine information (return date/time, dose received, etc.) reduces the risk of patients not returning for the second dose within the required timeframe and keeps the administrators informed of vaccine success.
We rely on healthcare professionals to tell us what we need to know -- but without systems in place that can organize and distribute data, they may not have all the information.
Manually inputting data can result in errors and omitted data points.
The problem is twofold: bad data coming in and bad data going out. Healthcare professionals lack access to real-time, accurate data, and they must rely on manual documentation to capture the support they provide, which is prone to errors and omissions.
With healthtech, this changes. The more data is collected, the more patterns and trends we can spot. But who is collecting data, and how is it being used?
All information is stored in one centralized location, that can then hold use for other departments. Which brings us onto the final point…
The vaccine is being delivered to 195 countries, with different databases and healthcare systems. There are 13 FDA databases that include information regarding medical recalls alone, others for adverse events, and different states have different healthcare systems. And that’s just in the US.
Healthtech solutions help us bring together data from different healthcare organizations, manufacturing and distributing facilities, and government departments into a centralized location. When managed correctly, this data can be shared and used in a confidential and beneficial way.
Imagine the amount of data that could be collected from every single healthcare facility in every single country -- and what aggregating it would reveal.
We need to see the big picture in order to diagnose the problems, and multiply the successes. Using our vaccine management system, UDIVitals, healthcare facilities and manufacturers can move towards this, and significantly improve patient safety at the point of care.