Tony Blair Institute, Oracle launch vaccine management programme in Africa
The Tony Blair Institute, TBI, and Oracle have brought cloud technology to Africa to manage public health programmes. Initially, Ghana, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone will use the new Oracle Health Management System to create electronic health records for their vaccination programmes for yellow fever, HPV, polio, measles, and Covid-19, as soon as that vaccine is distributed to Africa. TBI and Oracle are in discussions with more than thirty other countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America that are evaluating using the same cloud system to manage their Covid-19 vaccination programmes.
TBI has been providing policy advice and hands-on support to African governments as they tackle complex Covid-19 challenges. To address these challenges, TBI partnered with Oracle to deliver cloud technology to digitise and unify national health data starting with the management of vaccinations. The Oracle Health Management System creates an electronic health record in a cloud database for every person as they are vaccinated. This highly-secure system can be quickly configured to interoperate with each country’s existing technology and meet their most stringent data sovereignty requirements. Participating countries will have access and support for the system, free of charge, for the next ten years.
Ghana is now using the system to manage its yellow fever vaccine programme and will follow with Covid-19 once that vaccine is distributed in Africa. Rwanda has prepared its system to support its HPV vaccine administration as soon as secondary schools reopen, with plans to support Covid-19 vaccinations and an immunity pass for citizens in the future. Sierra Leone is preparing to use the system to create digital vaccination records when its next routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation campaign begins. EPI is a global initiative to vaccinate for polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, pertussis, measles, and tetanus. It is estimated to prevent two to three million childhood deaths globally each year from these diseases. Sierra Leone’s EPI programme reportedly covers 95% of eligible children in that country.
As countries begin vaccinating people for Covid-19, the Oracle Health Management System can be used to automatically create an electronic health record for every person vaccinated. Once the Covid-19 vaccine is available, the Oracle Health Management System will track immunisations and provide recipients with a Digital Quick Response code. These QR codes will help Africa reopen its borders and economies by providing citizens the proof of immunisation needed to move freely for work and travel.
“Since February of this year, the Africa Union and Member States have worked tirelessly together to address the impact of Covid-19 on the continent,” said Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, partnerships such as this one with Oracle, TBI and various governments are critical to the strengthening of Member State public health institutions, not only to incorporate innovative technology but to proactively and urgently harmonise the collection and sharing of important testing data across the continent.”
“This is an immensely exciting and potentially ground-breaking initiative for recording information on all disease vaccinations and treatments in African nations,” said Tony Blair, Executive Chairman of TBI and the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. “Though Africa has coped well with Covid-19, it still needs to be part of international efforts to control the disease, including for international travel. That means vaccination of at least a significant portion of the population, requiring the highest quality data system so that everyone’s vaccine experience is recorded. Oracle can provide that system with data securely stored and owned by each country and is prepared to do so as part of a global philanthropic partnership.”
