The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is using Oracle’s National Electronic Health Records Cloud plus Oracle’s Public Health Management Applications Suite to manage the COVID-19 vaccination program throughout the United States. The Oracle Public Health Management Applications Suite includes applications for managing the entire vaccination process from ordering the vaccine, tracking shipments, and managing inventory—to directly communicating with vaccinated patients via smartphones to collect safety data such as side effects and adverse events.
Nine months ago, the U.S. government launched an ambitious project to accelerate the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostic testing. To aid in that effort, Oracle built a National Electronic Health Records (EHR) Database plus a suite of Public Health Management Applications to help U.S. public health agencies and healthcare providers collect and analyze data related to COVID-19. Oracle’s National EHR system enables our public health officials to have access to up to the minute data as to how many people have been vaccinated in New York City or Palo Alto, or anywhere in the U.S. This real-time nationwide view of COVID-19 healthcare data is not possible with our existing fragmented provider based EHR systems.
The Oracle National EHR Database and Public Health Management Applications were first used in June of this year to register and directly communicate with over 500,000 people who volunteered to participate in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. By working collaboratively with the CDC and the U.S. Department of Defense during the pandemic, Oracle was able to extend the capabilities of the Public Health Management Applications Suite to help manage nationwide distribution and to collect patient data around COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Patient Monitoring
The Oracle Public Health Management System makes it easy for every person who receives a COVID-19 vaccination to use a smartphone or a computer to report side effects, such as injection site pain or a headache. That means every patient receiving a COVID-19 vaccine can directly communicate with healthcare professionals who will track all vaccine side effects and adverse events for the first days, weeks, and months after injection. Collecting this safety data will help medical professionals better understand how different patients respond to different vaccines—and the system will notify a physician in the rare event of a patient exhibiting a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine.
Supporting Large-Scale Vaccination Data and Distribution
Now that safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines are starting to be distributed, managing this complex logistical process quickly and efficiently is imperative; lives literally depend on it. Oracle’s Public Health Management System’s new Provider Order Portal was built specifically for the U.S. government and will enable authorized federal suppliers to order multiple vaccines and enable vaccine providers to manage inventory and fulfill orders based on availability. Providers will also be able to manage deliveries and ensure receipt of each shipment meets each vaccine’s specific requirements, such as different temperatures for cold storage. The system will also track returns and redistribution to minimize wastage.
National Electronic Health Records Cloud
The Oracle National EHR Cloud will serve as the CDC’s central data repository for all vaccination data in the U.S. This “national clearing house” system will receive data from all U.S. jurisdictions administering vaccinations. Anonymized vaccination data (a version of the data where all patient names and identifiers have been removed to protect patient privacy) will be used for analysis and reporting by authorized agencies and organizations.
Building the Future of Healthcare Systems
Last month, in partnership with the Tony Blair Institute, the exact same Oracle National EHR Cloud System was used to manage the distribution of Yellow Fever Vaccine in Africa. Over 70,000 people in Ghana were vaccinated during the first week of the program. We are currently in discussions with dozens of countries around the world to adopt Oracle’s Public Health Management Applications Suite to modernize their national public health infrastructure and thus enable efficient COVID-19 vaccine distribution, therapeutic monitoring and diagnostic testing.
Oracle’s National EHR Cloud and Public Health Applications can be used to manage vaccination programs, therapeutics distribution, and diagnostic testing for any disease anywhere in the world—this is just the beginning.
