Canid Vaccine Management System
There are now 63 state, regional, and city-based vaccine registries, called Immunization Information Systems (IISs), each operating independently under its respective local and state policies. It is the responsibility of the administering site to enter the required data and it can be a burden to staff when they need to enter the data in multiple locations such as the registry, the EHR, and the patient vaccination card.
One method of speeding data entry is the integration of bar code scanning into EHRs. After receiving a shipment of vaccine, the shipment form is scanned into a vaccine inventory which is integrated into the EHR. At a patient visit the provide orders are placed and the vaccines retrieved and scanned once more. Warnings appear if the vaccine is being given too soon, not age appropriate, or issued by the wrong funding source (eg Vaccines for Children program), or the vaccine has expired. The staff manually enters the vaccine administration information into the EHR, and the information is electronically sent to the appropriate IIS. Over the next few years, it is anticipated that a growing number of EHRs will have this capability.
I can tell you that in many pediatric offices, it is very time consuming and unwieldly for staff to enter vaccine information in multiple systems. One startup company, called Canid has a novel approach to facilitating IIS entries for pediatricians. The founder and CEO of Canid, Pedro Sanchez de Lozada, recently sat down with me to discuss IISs, and how the current IIS entry system can be improved.
Canid is establishing relationships with pediatric practices in the New York City area, where the company is located, and eventually hopes to expand services nationwide.
As discussed in the video interview, Canid helps practices acquire vaccines and has developed a software system that either integrates with popular EHRs or facilitates data entry into EHRs by providing a data file that is uploading into an EHRs on a daily basis. The Canid system keeps track of a practice’s vaccine inventory, replenishes supplies when appropriate, and most importantly monitors patient appointments so that a child receives all necessary vaccines. They do this by distributing barcode scanners (see above) that integrates with their proprietary software platform. When vaccines are ordered and taken out of a refrigerator or freezer, they are scanned, and fields are populated into a practices EHR (assuming the EHR supports Canid integration). Little or no manual entry is needed.
We discuss quite a bit in the video, and the conversation is quite enlightening. At the moment, Canid is assisting healthcare professionals in NYC make appointments for administration of Covid vaccines.
