The UBC CIC worked with faculty members in the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia and start-up MCG to develop a prototype that demonstrates how distributors could review information from a dashboard and decide to take action if a vaccine batch begins to exceed its temperature requirement.

Overview

In collaboration, the UBC CIC worked with faculty and graduate students at UBC and start-up MCG to develop a prototype that could allow distributors to take action if a vaccine batch begins to exceed its temperature requirement, which would result in fewer losses. The solution also allows stakeholders to track the location of vaccine batches in near-real time.

Problem

During the long chain of distribution, from manufacturer to national storage facilities to regional storage facilities and finally to local clinics, vaccine batches are at risk of being spoiled before they reach their final destination. This results in losses for manufacturers and less availability of vaccines.

Approach

The prototype was developed in 2 phases.  The first demonstrates the ability to monitor vaccines in transit.  The UBC CIC developed a dashboard that could ingest GPS and temperature sensor data embedded in shipping containers to track the location and temperature of vaccine batches during transportation to ensure the integrity of the vaccine shipment.  The prototype demonstrates how distributors could review information from a dashboard and decide to take action if a vaccine batch begins to exceed its temperature requirement.   In a second phase, the prototype also demonstrates capabilities using the Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) to create immutable and cryptographically verifiable records properties. 

Link to Github repository: https://github.com/UBC-CIC/VaccineDistribution

Supporting artifacts