Tech Giants Are Bracing Up For The Mammoth Challenge Of COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
Globally, several vaccines for COVID-19 have been either approved or are in the process of completing their final trials. The Indian government recently approved two vaccines — one from Bharat Biotech and the other from AstraZeneca/Oxford University. While things have started to look up at least in this aspect, another Herculean task lies ahead: distribution and management. Several companies have come ahead to provide tech-based solutions for effective distribution, including Microsoft, IBM, and Infosys. In this list, we describe significant projects in the immediate offering. Microsoft Consulting Services Microsoft introduced Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) in March 2020. MCS is a COVID-19 response platform that has till now deployed over 230 response missions. With vaccination trials that are going on in different parts of the world, MCS will divert its services towards an equitable and efficient vaccine distribution. MCS has developed the Vaccine Registration and Administration Solution (VRAS) that enables resident assessment, registration, and vaccine distribution schedule. It achieves this through secure data exchange for tracking and reporting of immunisation processes. A lot of partner firms are using Microsoft cloud for providing additional offerings on vaccine management. These offerings also enable integration with an existing system of records. Further, these offerings use artificial intelligence to generate geo-specific predictive analytics and secure communication using Microsoft teams. For MCS and other vaccine management services and initiatives, Microsoft has also partnered with Accenture, Avanade, EY, and Mazik Global. These partnerships entail a range of objectives, such as: Accenture Under this partnership, robust and scalable solutions are being prepared by combining Accenture’s consulting and industrial implementation expertise with Microsoft’s data and cloud technologies capabilities. Additionally, Accenture had rolled out its own  Vaccine Management Solution that provides the following solutions: Tracking platform: Accenture will use Salesforce’s manual contact tracing solution for tracking vaccination journey from registration and scheduling to administration and follow-up.Supply management: Building on existing supply chain mechanisms, Accenture will support vaccine supply ordering, inventory management and demand forecasting.Contact management: Here again, Accenture is partnering with Salesforce for deploying virtual agents for communication and primary-level query handling.Community education: Using Salesforce’s platform, Accenture will adopt a data-driven approach to drive awareness. EY EY Vaccine Management Solution is based on various Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Power BI, and Power Platform. Under this partnership, both enterprises hope to enable patient-provider engagement, supply chain management, and IoT powered real-time vaccines monitoring. Mazik Global Bangalore-headquartered Mazik Global is an independent software vendor that has also co-developed Dynamics 365. With its COVID-19 healthcare and support solution MazikCare Vaccine Flow, the company is working to implement scalable solutions for mass distribution of the vaccine. Available on Microsoft AppSource, MazikCare Vaccine Flow’s key features include vaccination appointment and administration, vaccination outcome monitoring, inventory management, and unified dashboard for real-time data on communities’ health status. IBM’s Blockchain-Based Solution IBM is pitching its blockchain-based solution for a more effective vaccine distribution mechanism. Putting forward a case for the same, IBM in a blog said that the organisation has successfully worked with different companies at different stages of the pharmaceutical supply chain to demonstrate that data in a blockchain network can verify the quality and speed up the process. IBM is now in the process of establishing a vendor-neutral blockchain platform for the use of pharmaceutical manufacturers and carriers. It will also help maintain privacy by granting permission to data sharing and keeping it safe against intrusions. IBM has also joined hands with Salesforce to introduce a health status tracking tool called Digital HealthPass. This tool will use blockchain to help employers manage their spaces by tracking their employees’ health status while also safeguarding an individual’s personal information. Cerner Healthtech company Cerner is making its Mass Vaccination software publicly available for the rapid vaccination without compromising on the safety checks and administration documentation. This software gives information from the electronic health record (EHR) to streamline the screening and vaccination process. Cerner EHR can capture critical codes and discrete data elements within the vaccination workflow. This data then allows for seamless analytics and reporting. Cerner will also use its proprietary dashboard called the HealtheAnalytics that would render information on positive patients, already vaccinated persons and other geospatial analytics data. Qualtrics Vaccine Management An SAP company that specialises in customer experience, Qualtrics has also unveiled its end-to-end automated vaccine management solutions. This solution leverages Qualatrix XM platform, which uses machine learning, predictive intelligence, and statistical analysis to assist in informed decision making. This automated workflow offers services such as: Gauging resident perception and sentiments regarding the vaccine. The government can then use these insights to address significant concerns for a better experience.Governments can digitally enrol health providers as vaccine administrators.A centralised system for patient assessment, consent, appointment scheduling.Providing real-time analytics for monitoring, decision-making for increased accountability. Infosys’ Vaccination Management Salesforce Solution The Infosys Vaccination Management Salesforce Solution is an end-to-end solution for providing task automation, data source integration, and delivering a seamless vaccination program. This solution also offers supply chain visibility and demand forecasting. This management workflow utilises Salesforce products and solutions, such as the resident and provides data from Health Cloud (a healthcare CRM from Salesforce) to manage outreach, advocacy, and follow-ups. It further combines the abilities of Salesforce’s analytics and marketing software Marketing Cloud, integration software Mulesoft and Tableau.
Globally, several vaccines for COVID-19 have been either approved or are in the process of completing their final trials. The Indian government recently approved two vaccines — one from Bharat Biotech and the other from AstraZeneca/Oxford University. While things have started to look up at least in this aspect, another Herculean task lies ahead: distribution […]
While things have started to look up at least in terms of COVID-19 vaccine production, another Herculean task lies ahead: distribution and management.
["covid-19", "covid-19 vaccine", "Microsoft"]
["Go", "artificial intelligence", "machine learning", "covid-19", "AI", "Azure", "R", "ML", "RAG", "covid-19 vaccine", "analytics", "predictive analytics", "Microsoft"]
["AI", "artificial intelligence", "machine learning", "ML", "analytics", "RAG", "predictive analytics", "Azure", "R", "Go"]
I am a technology journalist with AIM. I write stories focused on the AI landscape in India and around the world with a special interest in analysing its long term impact on individuals and societies. Reach out to me at shraddha.goled@analyticsindiamag.com.