India’s electronic vaccine intelligence network project also known as eVIN project has got the attention of five countries. Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand are mulling to replicate India’s immunisation project.
eVIN is an indigenously developed technology system in India that digitises vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application. The eVIN is presently being implemented across twelve states in India.
Members of a five country delegation met Union health secretary C K Mishra on Thursday to understand how eVIN project is being implemented and the ways in which it can be replicated in their own countries, said government.
eVIN aims to support India’s ‘Universal Immunisation Programme’ by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in states. The project is being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“We are ready to provide support and collaborate with other countries to strengthen their capacities and scale up their programs,” said CK Mishra, adding that this is a big boost for the Digital India and Make in India initiatives.
eVIN project focus on three things – technology, governance and human resources.
Under this project, technology enable an evidence-based decision-making by making available online real-time information on vaccine stocks and storage temperature through the eVIN application software and temperature loggers.
To ensure efficient vaccine logistics management by systemising record keeping through standardising stock and distribution registers; identifying gaps and improving clarity on vaccine cold chain network; drawing attention to infrastructure upgrades; developing standard operating procedures; and encouraging good practices.
To empower the state cold chain network by building the capacities of government cold chain handlers; and deploying vaccine and cold chain managers in every district for constant support to estimate vaccine requirements, supervise cold chain handlers and coordinate with cold chain technicians across the district.
