Mhealth program uses QR codes to access patient information

The Immune Project is using a mobile strategy to increase the number of vaccinations.

Every year, millions of children die from preventable diseases because they did not receive a vaccination, but with the mhealth strategy at the Immune Project, it is hoped that this number will be significantly diminished.

The program is using QR codes to give providers access to information about their patients.

The goal is to begin using better patient record management through mhealth methods in order to make certain that the number of people who do not have their vaccinations will shrink. It hopes to achieve this goal through an app known as Immune, which uses quick response codes that can be scanned with a smartphone in order to provide the necessary information about an individual to know whether or not he or she is vaccinated.

The mhealth app was created by Peter Beegle to help lower the number of unvaccinated children.

The app functions by allowing a mobile device to scan a QR code that a child can wear around his or her neck as a pendant, or from an ID card. The quick response codes can also be attached to toys or kept by the parents on behalf of the children so that their mhealth records can be quickly and easily accessed.

When the barcode is scanned by a doctor, that professional will be able to see the patient’s records and will show which vaccines are needed for that individual as well as for the rest of the children who are living in that patient’s village. This mhealth tool provides healthcare workers with a more effective tool that will allow them to better prepare themselves for the type of vaccines and other medications that will need to be brought with them when they are visiting a specific village.

This mhealth solution will save the doctors from having to make several trips to the village in order to make sure that everyone has been vaccinated and, for some, could mean the difference between life and death. The QR codes that are used with the application are quick, easy, and inexpensive to produce as well as to use.