Vaccine recipients in Los Angeles can post proof in Apple Wallet

Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg

Recipients of vaccines from Covid-19 in Los Angeles County, a major virus hotspot, will be offered a digital record that will help them get a second chance and can eventually be used to gain access to airline concert halls or flights. gain.

The offer is being offered from this week through a partnership with startup Healthvana. It is initially aimed at ensuring that people receive both doses of the US-approved two-shot regimens, including through follow-up notices before a second appointment.

It will also provide recipients with a way to verify that they have been vaccinated, which could put them in an Apple Wallet or competing Google platform “to prove to airlines, to prove schools, to prove to whoever it is” need, “said Healthvana’s CEO. Ramin Bastani.

Healthvana, based in Los Angeles, founded in late 2014, has a software platform that delivers test results to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections to patients. It began working with the province earlier this year to deliver Covid-19 test results to patients.

The previous relationships with residents in the area have adapted well to the start of the digital vaccine record, said Claire Jarashow, director of disease control against vaccines at the Department of Public Health.

Los Angeles County last week broke its record of new deaths and hospitalizations in Covid-19. Jarashow rushed to distribute vaccines as quickly as possible.

While the vaccinations are being tracked in registers, public health officials there have also seen the need to give patients ownership of their own records, Jarashow said. They receive a paper card indicating what vaccine they received and when, but it can be easily lost.

“We are really worried. We really want people to come back for the second dose, ”Jarashow said. And “we just do not have the ability to make hundreds of medical record requests to find people’s first doses and when to get their second.”

The tracking of Covid-19 vaccine recipients and the verification of immunization status is poised to become increasingly important in the US and worldwide as vaccines are rolled out.

It has a a race between players like International Business Machines Corp. to provide technological solutions, with the prospect of a world in which vaccination records can be used to provide access to places where people can gather, or be close by. With private health records, these efforts have also raised questions about ethical and privacy issues.

Software platform

Healthvana also offered more capabilities than a platform used to run Covid-19 vaccination clinics called PrepMod. At least initially, the province will integrate, clean and process data from PrepMod and other registers every night in Healthvana.

Jarashow acknowledged problems with providing access to a company’s protected health information by residents, but said they had worked through it. Healthvana stores the data on Amazon Web Services’ HIPAA servers, according to Bastani.

“It’s as safe as we can make it,” Jarashow said. ‘Personally, I would bird comfortable to use it, so I hope it is reassuring. ”

General population

The province administered at least 38 850 doses Pfizer Inc. vaccine, just under half the allotment, to healthcare providers, residents of long-term care facilities and paramedics from December 22nd. The digital vaccine record will become increasingly important as immunization pushes up to a general population, Jarashow said.

With about 10 million inhabitants, Los Angeles County is the most populous province in the United States.

Healthvana is also in talks with concert venues, employers, universities and schools about the application of this technology, “anyone who has a large number of people with them,” Bastani said. But he believes that such a service is unlikely to become the standard.

“It will not be like one credit card you can use in the US,” he said. “Sometimes you can pay cash, sometimes you have Apple Wallet.”