CoWin to protect universal immunization

The platform has been redesigned to support healthcare requests, including blood and organ donation

Following the success of the Co-WIN platform, the government is looking to repurpose the technology for a variety of healthcare uses. CoWIN is currently being redesigned for the Universal Immunization Program (UIP).

It will bring ease of discovering vaccination centres/camps and reminding mothers and newborns of follow-up vaccinations against preventable diseases, said CoWIN Chief and Director General of the National Health Authority, Dr. R. S. Sharma.

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He added that the addition of digitally verifiable certificates for routine vaccinations would be a first of its kind in the world and a great way to start creating a long-term health record for a child right from birth.

“Besides immunization, the platform will also be considered for use cases of blood and organ donation in the coming months,” he said.

Stating that the CoWIN system has not faced any major challenges so far, he said the new milestone to be achieved now is to adapt to the nuances of UIP and bring the ease of technology to multiple domains in healthcare. And the fact that to date there has been no valid complaint of any form of data leakage from the CoWIN platform puts all arguments against its security to rest.

Dr. Sharma said the country is focusing on increasing the reach of technology through its Digital Public Goods (DPGs) and the prowess of these DPGs has been seen in the success of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker and Aadhaar. authentication.

“By learning from building such DPGs and further leveraging their technology, we were able to build an open platform like Co-WIN. With CoWIN, India has created a unique model that addresses diversity, is interoperable and therefore ecosystem friendly that enables innovation,” he said.

He added that technology has been an integral part of India’s fight against COVID-19 and the CoWIN platform was developed in no time, leveraging the experience of developing and implementing large-scale applications like Aadhaar, UPI, GST, etc.