Vaccine Credentials Done Right

Vaccine credentials could be a safe and convenient way for people to resume a more normal daily life, but it ’s critical that we do it in the right way. Public and private sector collaboration is essential, and we must be driven by science and our best understanding of what vaccines mean for immunity under different conditions. It’s reasonable to expect that some businesses, schools and countries may r equire it – just like yellow fever vaccine certificates.So if we are moving toward those uses, we need to create a way patients can share their vaccination status if they wish to do so, with tools designed to be voluntary and not discriminate. But first we need to develop international standards for organizations administering the vaccines to make credentials available in a format that ’s accessible, interoperable and digital. We’re working on that with other health care providers, EHR vendors, state immunization systems, pharmacies and tech companies. This work will enable people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine to access, store and share their records in a secure, veri fiable and privacy-preserving way.At this time, patients who have been vaccinated at Mayo Clinic can choose to show their vaccination status on their phones using a health app, if they wish to. The app will say they ’ve been vaccinated, which vaccine they received and the date they got it. Over the next several months, theVaccine Credential Initiative, a collaboration of academia and industry,...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs