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In the next 2-6 months, health systems, governments, and organizations around the world are going to face the biggest vaccination campaign in human history. There will be operational uncertainty and urgent needs for patient prioritization, care documentation, and follow-up. A COVID Vaccine Program Toolkit can could be rapidly distributed and added to implementations using OpenMRS’ new microfrontend framework. We aim to prepare a prototype in time for the annual OMRS Conference in December, and possibly build this in as part of the 2.12 RefApp release. 

Background

    • In 2021, we will see the biggest vaccination campaign in human history. COVID-19 Vaccination programs are anticipated to start rolling out as soon as December 2020 and early 2021. 
    • COVID Vaccination Campaigns will be unlike any global immunization campaign we’ve seen before. Here’s why:
      • (1) Universal Urgency. The need for such a vaccine is so urgent, world-wide, and interconnected with the economies of entire nation-states.
      • (2) Implementation Uncertainty. The exact vaccination program used will likely take many different forms, because there are so many different types of vaccines currently under development. This means there are still many unknown variables, such as whether a cold chain will be required, the dose regimen/timing, and screening protocols (see the current landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines). 
      • (3) Immediate Need to Prioritize and Follow-Up. Because of the massive impact of COVID concerns on daily life, one can expect the demand for COVID vaccines to be much higher than the available supply, to a degree we haven’t seen with other immunizations. This means public health programs will have to develop protocols and processes to identify patients most in-need of the vaccine, and to follow up with these patients - especially since at least 33 of the 44 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation of the current vaccine candidates require a subsequent dose.
    • Community Health Workers will likely be a back-bone of vaccine delivery, especially where local hospitals or outpatient clinics are either understaffed or overwhelmed by COVID cases, or no longer seeing many patients due to the public fear of being exposed to COVID in a healthcare setting. Community Health Workers will likely have to take the vaccine into communities more directly, away from traditional clinic settings. 
    • This is an opportunity to leverage new plug-and-play frontend work in OpenMRS. A lightweight COVID Vaccine Delivery Tools can be implemented with the new microfrontend architecture, making it easier for implementers to both experiment with the functionality and to explore the new microfrontend architecture approach. Because these microfrontends use the OpenMRS core platform and REST and FHIR2 APIs, the tools won’t disrupt implementers current production system the way a new module would be. 
      • Many of the requirements below overlap with upcoming priority work around Patient Lists, Offline Mode, and Integration/Interoperability with Health Information Systems for reporting and public health monitoring.

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