What is ImmuniSave
ImmuniSave is a vaccination reminder and tracker system with analytics built on top to empower people in rural Kenya to be knowledgeable about their children's vaccination schedule and for healthcare workers to quickly record immunization progress and make proactive decisions to reform their immunization strategy.
REMIND With one simple SMS, a parent can register his or her child into the system and start receiving vaccination reminders automatically. Parents can register as many children as they'd like on the same phone. They do not need a smart phone or internet access. One SMS is all it takes.
The reminders are based on the national immunization schedule of Kenya. A parent will receive a reminder one week before a vaccination is coming up, on the day of the vaccination, and when it's overdue.
RECORD With each reminder, parents are given a code. This is a unique id that is specific to the child, the vaccination, and the iteration of that vaccination. Participating and registered health care providers can be given this code at the time of the vaccination to send an SMS using their phone to mark the vaccination as administered. We now have a record. We know which child received which iteration of which vaccination on what date by which healthcare provider. This can become the official immunization record for rural Kenya.
REFORM The benefits of reminding and recording can be further supplemented by taking action on what the data represents. The ELK stack we used to analyze the data collected can be used in many helpful ways such as to:
- Find out underperforming vaccinations, broken down into regions or other categories
- Have a realtime picture of immunization needs
- Rate the success of the overall program
- Shift resources between regions to proactively meet demand
- Open a line of communication to patients ** Targeted warning messages ** Warn of potential of outbreaks in their area, especially if they are not vaccinated against the disease ** Reach people you were never able to reach before ** Word of mouth can take the message to the community beyond the subscriber
Imagine if telecom companies were on board. The advertising for this campaign can be as simple as everyone receiving an SMS message letting them know they can text a free number to track their children's vaccination schedules.
What's next for ImmuniSave
Geomapping, better reporting, more involvement from health pros
What We Learned
We learned to work within the constraints presented to us - lack of internet access, access to smart phones, and economic limitations - voice calls and even SMS messages can be costly to the people of rural Kenya. So we had to think very hard on how to make this as cost effective as possible.
We learned Elasticsearch! The ELK stack helped us visualize the data (whatever little test data we had) and saw the power it can bring to governments and the healthcare community.
We also learned about QuickTime's 9:41 quirk. I took screenshots of my iPhone on my MacBook using the QuickTime movie recorder. And Apple doesn't want you to send screenshots of your iPhone with your underperforming wifi connection, your poor battery status, or... your... actual... phone time... Yeah...
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