Los Angeles vaccine recipients can prove it in Apple’s wallet

Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg

Recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine in Los Angeles County, an important point of the virus, will be given a digital record that will help ensure they get a second shot and could eventually be used to have access to concert venues or airline flights.

The offer is offered starting this week through a partnership with the startup Healthvana. It is initially aimed at ensuring that people receive both doses from two-shot regimens that have been authorized in the US, including through follow-up notifications before a second meeting.

It will also provide beneficiaries with a way to check if they have been vaccinated, which they can put in an Apple wallet or on a competing Google platform “to prove to airlines, to demonstrate to schools, to prove to anyone in need “Said Healthvana, executive director Ramin Bastani.

Healthvana of Los Angeles, founded in late 2014, runs a software platform that provides test results to patients for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. He began working with the county earlier this year to provide patients with Covid-19 test results.

These previous relationships with area residents have made the start properly suitable for digital vaccine registration, said Claire Jarashow, director of vaccine-preventable disease control at the county’s Department of Public Health.

Last week, Los Angeles County broke the record for more deaths and hospitalizations of Covid-19. He fought for the distribution of vaccines “as soon as humanly possible,” Jarashow said.

While immunizations are being tracked in registries, public health officials have also seen the need to give patients ownership of their own files, Jarashow said. They will receive a paper card tracking the vaccine they received and when, but this could be easily lost.

“We are really worried. We really want people to come back for the second dose, “Jarashow said. And “we just don’t have the capacity to make hundreds of medical records to find people’s first doses and when to take their second.”

Tracking Covid-19 vaccine recipients and authenticating immunization status is poised to become increasingly important in the US and globally as vaccines are launched.

That caused a competes among players such as International Business Machines Corp. to provide technological solutions, imagining a world where vaccination sheets can be used to allow access to places where people can gather or be in the immediate vicinity. Given private health records, these efforts have also raised questions about ethical and confidentiality concerns.

Software platform

Healthvana also offered more capabilities than a platform used to run Covid-19 vaccination clinics called PrepMod. However, at least initially, the county will integrate, clean and process data from PrepMod and other registers every night at Healthvana.

Jarashow acknowledged the problems of giving a company access to health information protected by residents, but said they worked through it. Healthvana stores data on Amazon Web HIPAA compatible service servers, according to Bastani.

“It’s as safe as can be,” Jarashow said. “I personally would do it sense comfortable to use it, so I the hope this is reassuring. “

The general population

The county administered at least 38,850 doses of The Pfizer Inc. vaccine, just under half of its allocation, for health care providers, long-term care unit residents and paramedics as of December 22nd. population, Jarashow said.

With approximately 10 million inhabitants, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States

Healthvana is also in talks with concert venues, employers, universities and schools about the application of this technology, “everyone has a large number of people interacting with them,” Bastani said. But he believes such a service is unlikely to become standard.

“It will not be like a single credit card that you can use in the US,” he said. “Sometimes you can pay in cash, other times you can use the Apple Wallet.”