Problem being addressed
Vaccination distribution and tracking are serious problems in the developing world, especially in remote areas. Medical records can be carried by patients on paper or not kept at all, leading to inefficiencies in identifying children most in need of vaccination and children who have already been vaccinated.
Detailed description of the solution
The ImmuNet system will be capable of determining a person's immune status, updating vaccination records in an underlying database, and providing fast, targeted dissemination of vaccination availability in rural areas. ImmuNet correlates up-to-date vaccine status of all persons in a coverage area with family relationship and biometric data and tracks human behavior to aid in rapid, prioritized immunization of infants and children. It is intended for areas without cellular connectivity because it gives residents of these areas a cellular network to use for vaccination information.
Designed by
- Designed by: Designed by Elizabeth Belding, computer science professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara
- Manufacturer (if different):
- Manufacturer location: Santa Barbara, CA, USA
When and where it was tested/implemented
Funding Source
Recipient of Grand Challenges in Global Health Grant.
References
Peer-reviewed publication
Other internally generated reports
"UC Santa Barbara Receives Grand Challenges Explorations Funding." UCSB College of Engineering. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Retrieved December 5, 3013 from here.
Mariya Zheleva, Ceren Budak, Arghyadip Paul, Biyang Liu, Elizabeth Belding, Amr El Abbadi "ImmuNet: Improved immunization of children through cellular network technology." 2nd best paper award in UCSB Graduate Student Workshop in Computing (GSWC), October 2012. Retrieved December 5, 2013 from here.
Externally generated reports
"Immunet: Targeted Immunization for Infants and Children." Grand Challenges Explorations Grants. Grand Challenges in Global Health, n.d. Retrieved from here.