KC’s Cerner helping create vaccine passport — a crucial step in returning to normal
The number of individual data points Cerner tracks on each patient is dizzying: the company’s electronic health records contain blood pressure readings, test results, medication and hospitalization records for millions of people.
So, how hard could it be to develop software to track just one metric: whether someone has been vaccinated for COVID-19?
“In the grand scheme of complexity this is on the easier side. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. It’s on the easier side,” said Dick Flanigan, a senior vice president at Cerner. “You’re collecting very targeted kinds of data.”
The North Kansas City-based healthcare IT giant is among several organizations working to create a so-called vaccine passport, which will allow people to show proof of vaccination as society attempts to further emerge from the pandemic.
The Vaccine Credential Initiative includes Microsoft, Oracle and Cerner’s top competitor, Wisconsin-based Epic Systems Corp. While much attention has been placed on the monumental government effort to vaccinate as many people as possible, that’s only the first step to returning to a semblance of normal life.
Once people have their shots, they’ll likely need some form of documentation. The Vaccine Credential Initiative is working on creating a digital tool that will allow people to show proof of vaccination before traveling or attending big events like concerts.
For such an endeavor to work, Cerner, its competitors and other big tech firms are trying to create a universal application that will share data regardless of a patient’s healthcare provider or location. It must account for the different types of vaccines and also ensure confidentiality of private medical records.
The initiative envisions providing people with an encrypted copy of immunization records that can be stored on a digital wallet. Those without smartphones could receive paper printed with QR codes that can be validated electronically.
“This process needs to be as easy as online banking,” Mike Sicilia, executive vice president of Oracle’s Global Business Units, said in a news release about the initiative.
Flanigan said the group hopes to begin testing the technology this spring and may launch it by mid-summer. While it will be up to individual companies and venues to decide whether to require proof of vaccination, he views the development of the new tool as a major hurdle in moving past the pandemic.
“We think this is a really big step towards building confidence for citizens to return to everyday activities,” Flanigan said.
While the task is herculean, it’s a natural fit for Cerner, which built an empire on digitizing paper medical records. The company’s software now allows patients and medical providers to quickly share data across healthcare systems and providers. And it has even jumped into the wearable tech space by partnering with Amazon to power its Halo Band, which tracks sleep, physical activity and emotional well being.
Cerner is also playing a role with the vaccine rollout itself.
The company has provided technology to help many of its hospital customers track the earliest stages of vaccine distribution. Now, with vaccines becoming more available to the wider public, Cerner is hosting massive vaccine clinics at its North Kansas City headquarters.
While the national rollout of the vaccines has been slow, Flanigan said progress is about as expected given the complexities of the American public health system. He views it as a “tremendous global accomplishment” to get a vaccine out within one year of the emergence of the virus. And he noted that the vaccine doses that are available are being distributed relatively quickly with little waste.
“It’s going as expected,” he said.
“People are getting vaccinated every week. And they’re happy to be vaccinated. It’s wonderful. So I think given the system we have and all the complexities built into it, I think it’s going OK.”
To distribute vaccines at Cerner’s North Kansas City campus, the company has partnered with the Clay County Public Health Center, Liberty Hospital and North Kansas City Hospital as part of Operation Safe. That group also includes various municipalities including Gladstone, Liberty and North Kansas City.
Kim Nakahodo, assistant city administrator for North Kansas City, said the vaccine clinics have included help from hundreds of volunteers. EMTs from across the area are helping to give shots and police are directing traffic. Cerner is providing the technology to schedule appointments and maintain records, and hundreds of its employees have already volunteered as part of the effort.
“It really is a whole community approach to make Operation Safe work,” Nakahodo said. “It really takes all of us working together.”
Operation Safe has so far vaccinated 7,232 individuals and plans to administer 6,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine this Thursday and Friday. Nearly 2,000 of those are rescheduled appointments after severe weather postponed clinics scheduled last week.
Nakahodo said the group has the capacity to administer 6,000 doses per week, if supply is strong enough.
“We would love to keep that pace up,” she said. “We are happy to get anything we can get, but we have no control over supply.”
