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reach52 wins ADB’s COVID-19 Vaccine Safety & Immunization Monitoring Challenge

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched a three-part COVID-19 Vaccine Challenge Series as part of its work to address COVID-19 in the region. The final challenge in this #DigitalAgainstCOVID-19 hackathon took place in March focused on how digital technologies could be used to boost COVID-19 vaccine demand, help dose tracking, and potentially monitor mild and adverse events following vaccinationWe’re delighted to announce that reach52 was selected as one of the two winners of the challenge for a novel solution leveraging our existing ‘offline-first’ health tech platform to enable tracking of COVID-19 vaccinations in low-resource settings 

The integrated solution will combine two elements – an ‘offline-first’ app for health workers and an automated SMS (or Instant Messaging) gateway for patientsThrough the offline-first app that works in even low-connectivity regions, patients at vaccination sites are registered by the health workers and the details of the vaccination recorded. Patients receive SMS messages with their unique code linking to details about their first vaccination dosereminders on when and where they will receive the follow up, and the code is then used for 2nd dose administration.  

The solution will also enable vaccine stock tracking and forecasting for each districtadverse event reporting, and data recording to share with the relevant Health Management Information Systems. As with all reach52 services for low-connectivity regions, the health tech applications have been designed for lower levels of digital literacy and lower spec devices.  

This winning solution for COVID-19: Vaccine Safety and Immunization Monitoring will be implemented in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Health Sector Group to support the Bank’s vaccination programmes in developing member countries during 2021