In the following weeks, the Australian government will be launching the platform in an effort to support the various phases of its nation-wide vaccination plan as part of the Department of Health’s (DOH) end-to-end COVID-19 vaccination solution. Being the pioneer when it comes to providing online bookings for healthcare services, HealthEngine has a wealth of experience which the federal government can leverage on. It has developed a robust and scalable system to cater to the DOH’s needs for the vaccination programme simply by modifying its platform.

In order to meet the tight deadlines set by the DOH, HealthEngine has expedited its efforts in developing the system to contribute to the nation’s COVID-19 management efforts. The platform will serve to allow patients to locate designated clinics which they can go to for the vaccination via a Service Finder which is based on the National Health Services Directory (NHSD) as well as allow them to schedule an appointment with these clinics.

THE LARGER TREND

Countries all over the world are scrambling to either develop their own vaccines or obtain it from external sources. Several COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and approved for use either by individual nations or groups of them, such as the European Union and World Health Organisation. Most countries are prioritising the administration of vaccines to the elderly who 60 and above, healthcare workers as well as those who are susceptible to the virus.

However, despite having secured the COVID-19 vaccine, it is also crucial that the Australian government takes into consideration the different phases of its inoculation programme such as their priority treatment groups as well as the documentation and tracing procedures for those who have yet to receive the vaccine or are scheduled to receive their second dose. There are three key aspects to this - namely the vaccine supplies which include cold storage of the vaccine and distribution, the people required to implement the procedure such as the vaccinators and the staff to document the process, as well as the individuals who have to be vaccinated.

ON THE RECORD

“Given the very tight timeframes involved and the complexity of such a project, we are under no illusions about the challenge we have signed up to. However, the opportunity to support a historic public health effort involving millions of Australians by assisting the Federal government with a very important piece of national digital health infrastructure, was one we simply couldn’t pass up,” stated Dr Marcus Tan, HealthEngine CEO, founder and medical director.

He further elucidated that “(they) were humbled by and grateful for the tremendous support we received from the broader health and technology sectors with our bid to perform this work. These included written references from practice customers large and small across the spectrum of health specialties, organisations that confirmed our patient-centred approach and our ability to cooperatively work with ecosystem partners such as Medipass and MedAdvisor to extend future functionality as required. This project is a huge team effort and we’re excited to be an official part of the team.”