How Emmunify Works
To improve delivery of immunizations, we set ourselves a few goals:
- Can we make an immunization medical record that is easy to carry, easy to use and easy for patients to move between care providers?
- Can we make it usable without wifi, phone service, or electricity?
- Can we make it resilient to heat, humidity, and rain?
- And can we keep costs to a minimum?
The Emmunify operation is divided into three distinct processes as mentioned in sections titled A, B, C below.
(A) Registration Process When a rural village family first comes to a clinic, the Village Health Worker (VHW) will have a console with an application running to register the expectant mother and family. Each family will be assigned an ID which is associated with the villager's mobile phone number. The registration process will involve capturing the name of the parents, the name of the child, and the child’s due date or date of birth. The VHW can then place a RFID tag (a sticker) on the villager's phone. The tag is programmed with relevant health data by the VHW's console. The goal will be to register the child's families as early as possible, so that tracking can happen even before delivery. As part of the registration process a verification SMS will be sent to the villager's mobile device with a unique code generated by the VHW's registration application. The VHW will check that the same code is received on the villager's mobile device as on the console. Once that is confirmed the registration is complete.
(B) Tracking and Immunization Recording Process Once the villager has been registered, a SMS reminder will be sent to the family reminding the family to come to the clinic when their child is due to receive a vaccination. If the villager has come to the clinic for the first time then the VHW will first complete the registration process. The VHW will scan the RFID tag using a console. This will bring up the ID of the family along with the names of the children and a list of immunization shots that are due. Once the shot is administered then the record is updated on the console. The RFID tag is then re-programmed with the updated information.
The tag can also be used to capture additional information about the child such as their body weight, height, blood group, etc. These will be useful to later aggregate and provide information on malnutrition rates in a district or a region. Besides administering and updating the immunization record, the console can also be used to ensure the correct vaccine is administered using simple techniques such as color coding or using another RFID tag for the batch of vaccine supplies. This allows the VHW to check the vaccine expiration date and avoid errors in administering vaccines.
The tag can also be used to capture additional information about the child such as their body weight, height, blood group, etc. These will be useful to later aggregate and provide information on malnutrition rates in a district or a region. Besides administering and updating the immunization record, the console can also be used to ensure the correct vaccine is administered using simple techniques such as color coding or using another RFID tag for the batch of vaccine supplies. This allows the VHW to check the vaccine expiration date and avoid errors in administering vaccines.
(C) Data Recording on the Cloud The VHW's console will have cellular connectivity and will be sending updates to the cloud on a periodic basis. This will ensure that the data is backed to the cloud and free up resources on the VHW's console thus reducing hardware requirements for the console and preventing data loss. The data on the cloud will be used by the Emmunify team for running the immunization operation and to generate a near real-time analytics dashboard. The dashboard will provide data about the child's health, location, and vaccination status. The cloud will also have an application that will send automated SMS reminders to the families as their vaccination appointment approaches and guide them to the nearest immunization clinic. All SMS messages will be sent in the local dialect that is prevalent in the region thus ensuring that the message gets read and understood.