A digital biometric-based vaccination management system for newborn children has been launched in Kenya.
The biometric was developed by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri), NEC Corporation ( a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation), and Nagasaki University in Japan.
With this, medics will be now tracking children’s vaccination until they attain five years.
As of November 2022, data from more than 300 caregivers and newborns had been registered, including the vaccination histories of more than 150 newborns.
The system aims to ease the process of vaccination and enhance the proper management of data.
Further, it will promote the administration of appropriate vaccinations as the system would also be used by caregivers to schedule vaccination visits.
This technology will be the first of its kind where biometric identification will be used at a hospital to identify newborn children at the time of vaccination, including those immediately after delivery.
The new technology combines fingerprint identification for children and voice recognition for caregivers to confirm their identity, saving time during vaccination visits as there will be no paper records.
The pilot project for the biometric technology is being conducted in Kinango Sub-county Hospital before its rollout across the country
Going forward, demonstration tests that network multiple hospitals will begin, aiming for full-scale introduction throughout Kenya by the end of 2023, and more international deployment in the future.
According to Kemri acting Director-General, Prof Elijah Songok, a landmark study on identifying newborns using biometrics and a vaccination management system, which was done last year, will inject effectiveness for policy and action towards the attainment of better health outcomes and Universal Health Coverage.
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