Government of Jamaica Launches CommCare as COVID-19 Vaccination Management Platform

In a partnership with Dimagi, UNICEF and the Private Sector Vaccine Initiative (PSVI), the Government of Jamaica has rapidly launched a digital system to manage COVID-19 vaccine delivery across the country using CommCare.

After rapid iterations, more than 1,000 users across Jamaica have been trained to use the system – including medical officers, public health nurses, and community health agents. The solution assists vaccinators and vaccine recipients before, during, and after the delivery of a full course of the COVID-19 vaccine. The application is used by vaccinators to screen vaccine recipients for eligibility, record the delivery of multiple doses, and record adverse events.

CommCare has been integrated with Jamaica’s national COVID-19 vaccine scheduler so potential recipients can be pre-registered in the platform to allow for a seamless and efficient process once they arrive for their appointments.  The system has been rolled out nationally and has been used to record more than 300,000 vaccine doses.

Finally, data collected through the application is fed into a dashboard that visualizes various elements of the vaccine campaign including detail used to monitor vaccine delivery, track rates of missed appointments and lost-to-follow-ups, and ensure that priority segments are vaccinated first. The dashboard is updated in real time as data is collected so decision making is empowered with the most up-to-date detail on what’s happening on the ground.

Jamaica Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton shared some preliminary remarks about the system during a virtual ceremony to officially launch the system on Monday, June 14. In his speech, he shared that implementing CommCare for vaccine delivery has been “one of the most significant digitization of our public health records in our history as an independent country, and a good initiation of what technology can do for public health.”

Minister Tufton also kindly invited others to look at the progress of Jamaica in implementing the COVID-19 CommCare software. “We’re more than happy to invite you to come and look at what we’ve done here so that you can go and do it elsewhere.”

Dimagi’s Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Jackson shared positive sentiments about the work in Jamaica. “It’s been incredibly heartening to see the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ commitment to digitizing in the face of this unprecedented vaccine campaign. They’ve demonstrated that with the right investment, digital solutions can be rapidly scaled and provide immediate value from the front line all the way to the central level.”

Jonathan continued, “We are grateful to UNICEF, PSVI, and the MOHW for their partnership and for bringing us in to support during this momentous public health event. With CommCare now scaled nationally, we look forward to continuing our partnership and exploring how we can provide further value to frontline health workers across the country.”

In an effort to share lessons learned while deploying and scaling the system, UNICEF has compiled a case study available for download.