Beyond Data Collection: Actionable Insights to Vaccinator Supervisors

Mustafa Naseem of the University of Michigan in the U.S. will create an android application to present digital immunization and performance data from front-line health workers to their medical supervisors to improve vaccination coverage in Pakistan. Polio is a vaccine-preventable disease, eradicated in much of the world yet endemic in Pakistan due to poor compliance with immunization schedules. Vaccine administration in rural provinces is challenging because of understaffed, understocked, and sparsely-located healthcare centers. To improve this, the government introduced eVaccs – a smartphone-based monitoring system to track the movements and vaccinations administered by each vaccinator. However, these data remain largely inaccessible to their direct supervisors. To address this, they will develop an application to present them with relevant data in a useful format in real time. This will enable supervisors to better monitor performance, identify key challenges to comprehensive vaccination coverage, and help them better manage vaccine supplies. They will perform behavioral experiments in the field to test whether their approach positively influences vaccination coverage.