One-line solution summary:
Vaccination verification service to stem the tide of counterfeit vaccination certificates
Pitch your solution.
False or fraudulently obtained proof of vaccination documentation constitute an estimated 80% of vaccination certificates used by travelers in Africa, Asia, and South America.Not only do these counterfeit vaccination certificates pose a threat to global health security with the increasing possibility of cross border epidemics, they also lead to loss of revenue to vaccine manufacturers, consequently driving up the cost of vaccinations.
Vaxiglobal is a vaccination verification service where clinicians who administer vaccines for travel or immigration purposes are verified, and digital observation of vaccination procedure is done. In addition to the WHO immunization card, digital vaccination certificates are created and embedded in QR codes which are scanned at border controls with the consent of the traveler. The system can also be used by international universities and other institutions which require proof of vaccination from their international students. Vaxiglobal promotes good vaccination practice therefore limiting the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases globally.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
WHO recommends vaccination for persons travelling to or from Yellow Fever endemic areas. Proof of vaccination is supplied by producing a Certificate Of vaccination completed by a clinician. Unfortunately, there is a tide of counterfeit proof of vaccination certificates as evidenced by reports from Zimbabwe, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana.
In Zimbabwe over 500 000 fraudulent vaccination certificates were sold in 2019. An estimate of 30 million travelers worldwide acquire falsified yellow fever or polio vaccination certificates every year. Factors contributing to this problem include
1) Shortage of vaccines- Since most yellow fever vaccines just end up shelved at clinics, and revenue is lost to the vaccination black market, manufacturers have scaled down vaccine production.
2)Travelers lose vaccination cards and since there is no interoperability within existing electronic records, people resort to last minute purchasing of counterfeit certificates at travel ports.
3)Vaccination skepticism influenced by the anti-vaccination movement is prevalent in Africa where most travelers are relying on the internet instead of professional health workers for health education.
200,000 cases of yellow fever cause 30,000 deaths worldwide every year. Those who travel without vaccination, unaware of the consequences, couldend up inadvertently carrying the yellow fever virus back to their countries.
What is your solution?
Vaxiglobal is a vaccination verification service consisting of a
1) a secure web portal for verified and approved clinicians to enter vaccination records for international travelers. Laboratories which perform immunization tests can also access the portal.
2) a secure web portal for approved governments and international institutions to view unaltered travelers vaccination records uploaded by clinicians.Governments can also update their vaccination requirements on this platform
3) a web portal and mobile mobile app(in development) for travelers to view vaccination requirements, locate vaccination points, view digital certificate and QR code, control who can view and edit their records.
Vaxiglobal partners with health councils of different countries to verify clinicians who administer vaccines. (In development:A system of personal body cameras activated when administering vaccines for international traveling will be used to observe the shot.) Clinicians create digital certificates and they are embedded in a QR code that is available on the traveler's mobile phone and also printed. At the border control, Government scans the QR code to verify vaccination records
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Vaxiglobal verification service is primarily for institutions that require proof of vaccination from international travelers.
People travelling to areas where yellow fever is prevalent, are required to get immunised against the disease prior to their trip and must produce their
yellow fever certificate when re-entering their
home country afterwards. Forty seven countries in Africa, Central and South America are either endemic for , or have regions that are endemic for, yellow fever-(WHO). These include countries with high volumes of toursists such as Brazil, and Kenya.
Vaxiglobal system can also be used by international universities which require proof of vaccination from all international students before enrollment. 87% of universities in USA, Australia, and Europe require proof of vaccination against polio and measles. These are the populations whicha re going to benefit ftom vaxiglobal.
We are piloting our system in partnership with the Medical Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe and the Embassy of Zambia in Zimbabwe and the University of Zimbabwe. Our system has been enhanced by contributions from these institutions.
We also interviewed travelers at RoadPort internatinal bus terminus in Harare Zimbabwe and Lusaka Bus terminus in Zambia to find out how best we can develop our system to meet their needs.
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge.
As highlighted in the Health Security & pandemics challenge, we cannot solely treat disease outbreaks reactively. Vaccines are a high impact low cost solution to prevent potential global outbreaks, but only if they are administered efficiently. Counterfeit vaccination certificates
could impose a great health risk, the consequences of which could be dire should should authorities wait for an outbreak to happen before they initiate a move.
Vaxiglobal vaccination verification service therefore strengthens primary healthcare systems by ensuring travelers get vaccination at the authorized clinics and revenue flows back to the vaccine manufacturers. This will increase vaccine production and lower costs.
What is your solution’s stage of development?
Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one communityWho is the primary delegate for your solution?
Tsitsi Sifiyali
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Harare, ZimbabweIf you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or processDescribe what makes your solution innovative.
While the World Health Organization published guidelines in 1999 to support countries in developing measures to combat counterfeit
pharmaceutical products and issued a report in 2017 highlighting
the public health and socioeconomic impacts of falsified medical
products, it did not discuss solutions to the current problem of false or fraudulently obtained proof of vaccination documentation.
In 2012 countries like Nigeria attempted to curb the challenge by increasing security features on the proof of vaccination card, but in 2018 a Lagos report showed that even these security features on physical documents have been counterfeited. To date, the main approach used to avoid counterfeiting is adding security features to the physical vaccination card, including signature and stamp.
Other approaches to address this problem include efforts made by the government of Ethiopia to perform mass yellow fever vaccination. But high costs and technical feasibility have proven to be major limitations to this approach.
Private companies like emedical systems have been contracted by the governments of Australia, and Canada to be used by very few doctors, as a way of addressing false medical records. But this approach is often expensive as only a couple of doctors are contracted to use emedical systems often with high charges associated.
Vaxiglobal is an innovative approach to stemming the tide of counterfeit proof of vaccination in that it is the only platform connecting doctors, travelers, and institutions on one platform, it is interoperable, and puts travelers in charge of their records.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Vaxiglobal uses web and mobile applications, imaging and sensor technology, and cloud data storage at its core.
Clinicians , have a digital vaccination form on their web portal that they fill in whenever they administer a vaccine. For certain clinics close to international departure ports, A body camera worn by the clinician captures the vaccination shot and transmits the proof of vaccination to Vaxiglobal. A QR code is generated for every digital certificate created. At border control points, these QR codes can be scanned by phones paired to the vaxiglobal app or by QR scanners.
Travelers and students have a web portal and a mobile app(in development) for viewing vaccination requirements and authorizing who can view and edit their certificates.
The system uses advanced encryption to secure travelers vaccination records.
Provide evidence that this technology works.
Electronic vaccination registers are widely used in recording vaccination records for children immunisation in Africa under GAVI programs, and in the European Union. But of course these lack interoparability.
QR codes are now widely used for verifying payments, and in some countries for verifying bus tickets and other official documents.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
What is your theory of change?
Daily Vaxiglobal Activities include manual verification of travelers and doctors who signup on our platform to be international vaccine providers and recipients. There is also verification of video recorded vaccination shots to authenticate vaccination certificates.The output becomes authentic digital vaccination certificates. In the short to medium term, this minimizes incidence of travelers completely losing their vaccination records, it also leads to a decrease in counterfeit vaccination certificates and to an increase in revenue to clinicians and vaccine manufacturers, which in turn stimulates increased vaccine production and , lowering of costs. Eventually, this leads to increased vaccination coverage, and increased protection from vaccine preventable diseases.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
We currently have 92 registered doctors registered on ours system who have produced 503 digital certificates for Zimbabwe-Zambia travelers just before Covid 19 Lockdown and travel restriction.
When travel restrictions are eased we expect to produce about 250 000 digital certificates in one year from Zimbabwe Zambia travellers only.
Expanding our services to south Africa and Central/North Africa will help us serve over 2000 doctors and 2 million travelers in one year from now.
Our goal is to serve about 30 million travelers in 5 years
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
Our bold goal in the next five years is zero counterfeit proof of vaccination.
VaxiGloblal seeks to replicate its partnerhip with the Medical Practitoners Council Of Zimbabwe but this time with the Health Professions Councils of South Africa, Zambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Kenya in the 1st 2 quarters of the next 1 year.
Creating partnerships with these organisations facilitates national adoption of vaccine verification system. Our stepwise approach is to operate in Southern Africa before verifying vaccination certificates for Nigeria, Ghana and other west African Countries in the 2nd quarter.
The 3rd quarter should see us verifying certificates for Brazil and other South American countries before expanding to Asia in the last quarter.
In 5 years Vaxiglobal aims to be operating on all major continents as the largest vaccination verification service.
Apart from verifying yellow fever certificates, Vaxiglobal seeks to verify immunsation records for Chinese students to Australia and USA within the 1st year.
What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year and in the next five years?
Apart from financial factors, barriers to adoption and expansion of Vaxiglobal verification system are systemic, legal and financial.
-Vaxiglobal's goal of zero counterfeit proof of vaccination requires border agent compliance, and legal policies for use of digital vaccination certificates.
-It also requires embassies involvement in guiding travelers on new proof of vaccination guidelines to their respective countries.
-Financial barriers are mainly due to staffing and marketing budgets with a budget estimate of $20 000 per year for every country Vaxiglobal expands its services.
How do you plan to overcome these barriers?
Learning from our relationship with the embassy of Zambia, Vaxiglobal will easily get adoption if we partner with health professions councils and embassies of countries we wish to serve.
For example, if Vaxiglobal seeks to verify vaccination certificates of Indian travelers to Brazil; Vaxiglobal has to establish a partnership with the Medical Council Of India to use Vaxiglobal system to deter non-registered practitioners from giving out vaccination certificates. The embassy of Brazil in India will therefore require Indian travelers to Brazil to have authentic certificates as determined by the Medical Council of India. The Medical Council of India and the embassy of Zambia do not have to pay anything for this service. This model worked perfectly when we established partnership with the Medical Council Of Zimbabwe and approached the Zambian embassy in Zimbabwe.
We seek to overcome financial barriers, by raising venture capital, and by charging a fee to travellers for the creation of a digital certificate.
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar modelsHow many people work on your solution team?
Full time staff- 10
Contractors- 8
Part time staff-10
How many years have you worked on your solution?
1 year
Why are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
VaxiGlobal was cofounded by Tsitsi Sifiyali and Integrity Mchechesi. Integrity Mchechesi is a medical doctor and social enterpreneur whose work with Afrimom, another healthcare innovation, has earned him a spot on the World Health Organisation Africa Top 30 innovators 2019. He was also nominated as one of the six recipients of Zimbabwe POTRAZ Ministry of Information and Computer Technology innovation drive award in 2018. Dr Integrity Mchechesi was also nominated as a Clinton Global Inititiative fellow in 2018, and as a Mandela Washington fellow in 2020. His experience in the healthcare innovation and his experienced professional network provide a guarantee to the delivery of this solution.
Chief Advisor to the Vaxiglobal Project include Andrew Nerlinger who has worked with Integrity Mchechesi at the World Health Organisation Africa Innovation challenges in 2019 and on the WHO-Afro covid 19 response hackathon in 2020.
Dr. Andrew Nerlinger is a Venture Partner with Vesalius Ventures, a
Houston-based venture capital company focused on telemedicine and
digital health technologies. He guides the company’s international
efforts to promote telemedicine in Africa and south Asia, advises
portfolio companies, and identifies opportunities for investment in
early stage technologies. Dr. Nerlinger is also the Co-Founder and
Managing Director of Endura Ventures, a consulting company that provides
advisory services to investors in emerging healthcare technologies.
Other advisors and team members also have a wealth of experience that can be counted on to deliver a great solution.
What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?
To date we have partnered with the Medical practitioners Council of Zimbabwe in verifying eligible clinicians to create digital vaccination certificates.
We have also received technical assistance from the Postal and telecommunications regulatory authority of Zimbabwe to setup our pilot.
What is your business model?
Vaxiglobal provides a free vaccination verification service to medical councils, governments, and private academic institutions; these three are the key Vaxiglobal partners and beneficiaries. Our platform also offers digital vaccination records to international travelers at a small fee of $USD10.Other indirect beneficiaries of Vaxiglobal service include vaccine manufacturers, clinicians, and non travelers who are protected from vaccine preventable diseases which can spread across borders.
Key Activities include verifying doctors who administer vaccines, and maintaining the Vaxiglobal system which creates digital certificates and connects clinicians to governments and academic institutions.
A traveler who requires a digital vaccination certificate pays $US10. Private academic institutions pay a minimal yearly subscription, but international students pay $50 for vaccination verification.
Biggest expenditure areas are staff salaries, system maintenance, and marketing. As we move out of the pilot phase the staff salaries budget will increase sharply but system maintance budget will only steadily rise.
Vaxiglobal seeks to invest a significant portion of its surplus towards local Africa vaccine production to ease the strain on donations and to lower down cost of vaccines.
Other sources of revenue will involve sales of body cams for the Digital Observation vaccination strategy (DOVS) and verification services for medical examinations for visa applications.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, or to other organizations?
Organizations (B2B)What is your path to financial sustainability?
VaxiGlobal seeks to raise investment capital for initial operations after the pilot. Our model is sustainable by charging travelers and students for use the service. An estimated 30-50 million international travelers require proof of vaccination and the average cost of each digital vaccination certificate is $US10. Our estimate annual revenue is $USD500 million a year against operational expenses of $USD50 million a year.
Solution Team
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Tsitsi Sifiyali Chief Executive Officer, Vaxiglobal
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Solution Name:
Vaxiglobal