As Jim Rogers goes about his workday, he’ll sometimes envision a football stadium in which 100,000 people have been invited to gather, each with general admission tickets and no instructions on what to do after entering the premises.
The results would be disastrous in a pandemic, according to the vice-president of health-care solutions at Traction on Demand (Traction Sales and Marketing Inc.)
As jurisdictions around the globe embark on the largest mass vaccination in history, Rogers is dialling in on how to use software to keep logistical calamities from unfolding.
“The fundamental challenge is, how do we get the right vaccine … in the right place, which is where we’re going to vaccinate, at the right time and in the right quantity to match that need based on priority and population volume,” Rogers said.
Rogers, who’s based in Colorado, is assisting U.S. states with tapping the Canadian company’s vaccine administration software to avoid the chaos of people inundating clinics or hospitals at the wrong time.
“It will probably take 90 days to work [out logistics],” Rogers said, referring to the bumpy start of the vaccine rollout in many North American jurisdictions.
He said many organizations now realize that their present scheduling systems were not designed for block scheduling that might require 100 people to show up at specific hours and at specific locations.
Organizations must also consider factors such as the shipment and freezing requirements of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq:BNTX).
Doses must be kept inside freezers that can maintain temperatures of -80C. But once thawed, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be used within five days, adding another wrinkle into the logistics of inoculation efforts.
Rogers estimated it would take most organizations charged with administering vaccinations two to three years to complete inoculations if they were to rely on their current systems.
Traction’s software is best known for helping companies implement marketing strategies using Salesforce.com Inc.’s (NYSE:CRM) customer relationship management services.
But during the pandemic its technology has been increasingly deployed in health care, where it is used for everything from contact tracing to managing personal protective equipment for a COVID-19 supply hub.
Other B.C. organizations are also finding themselves shifting their software expertise to the world of vaccine management amid the pandemic as administrators find their tools insufficient.
Surrey-based Cambian Business Services Inc. is leading a joint project that has developed booking and management software that can co-ordinate between multiple organizations such as regional health authorities, clinics and private long-term care facilities.
“How do you line people up to say who is first in line, who’s second in line, who’s one millionth in line?” Cambian Business Services CEO Bruce Forde said. “It’s about determining how to organize the prioritized authorization or basically saying, ‘It’s your turn.’”
Project ABC received $3 million in funding from the Digital Technology Supercluster along with a $1 million co-investment from partners, including Vancouver-based Well Health Technologies Corp. (TSX:WELL), Tickit Health Ltd. and IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM).
Forde said the booking component of Project ABC’s product will be instrumental in ensuring the vaccine rollout runs smoothly across different provinces and avoids large groups of Canadians from gathering at vaccine sites simultaneously.
The consortium began collaborating in June 2020, and the software is set to launch on a wide scale as of March 31, as vaccination shifts from front-line workers and the most vulnerable to more of the general population. •
