During the vaccination campaign carried out in Berberati at the end of February, Médecins Sans Frontères tested new technology to facilitate and simplify the prescription of vaccines to children. "We are undertaking a multi-antigen vaccination campaign, which means that we vaccinate against a number of diseases. Each child is unique, so we need to know if each child should be vaccinated and which vaccines he or she will receive," says Anna Righetti who is in charge of this innovative project in Berberati.
Normally MSF teams rely on algorithms and mental calculations to determine who and how many vaccines should be done. Now using a touch screen tablet, the calculation is automatic. The health worker enters basic data such as the date of birth of the child, and whether the child has already received the vaccine. The tablet does the rest and with a few clicks, the staff knows what to give each child. Human error is minimised and data is saved, exported and analyzed immediately. It is a time saving tool, reducing paperwork and data entry.
In Berberati, four people were trained and they used the tablet during the recent vaccination campaign. "It makes my life a lot better, it's very easy to use, I know what has to be prescribed, and there is no error,” says Felix, one of the staff who has been trained.
If the results are conclusive, the tablet could be used more widely in the future for this type of vaccination campaign.