SHOT IN THE ARM: Managing vaccine delivery with cloud tech

Now that safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines are available, every country, state and city is rapidly establishing vaccination programmes to get shots in the arms of billions of people. However, many government agencies and healthcare organisations do not have the technology infrastructure in place to handle the complexity, speed and scale necessary for vaccine administration, such as inventory and logistics management, getting people registered and scheduled for their vaccines, and recipient outreach and vaccine outcome monitoring. Governments are also partnering with private sector companies to help manage this mass vaccination effort, and these businesses need the same technology infrastructure to help deliver safe, efficient and effective vaccine administrations and programmes.

Towards this, the San Francisco headquartered cloud-based software firm Salesforce has come up with its Vaccine Cloud technology to help government agencies, healthcare organisations, businesses, nonprofits and educational institutions more rapidly, safely and efficiently deploy and manage their vaccine programmes. Basically, Vaccine Cloud is part of Salesforce’s Covid-19 response technology solutions, which include vaccine inventory management, appointment scheduling, outcome monitoring, public health outreach and more.

“The biggest challenge the world faces right now is orchestrating the distribution of billions of vaccine doses. Technology can play a critical role in ensuring it’s done efficiently, effectively, and equitably,” said Bret Taylor, president and COO of Salesforce.

KEY BENEFITS OF VACCINE CLOUD

• Government agencies, public health agencies can use Vaccine Cloud to monitor vaccination progress with data and insights.
• Healthcare providers can use Vaccine Cloud to streamline vaccination processes, such as inventory management, staff training and education, and payment and reimbursement.
• Businesses, personnel, retailers, customers can benefit with a simplified registration and appointment scheduling process, personalised communications for follow up outcome monitoring and a reminder to come in for their second shot if needed.