New Software Facilitates H1N1 Vaccine Distribution in Arizona

ABC News on Campus reporter Brian McBride blogs:

Maricopa County public health officials are using a new software program developed by the business school at Arizona State University to help them quickly determine where to send new doses of the H1N1 vaccine as the Centers for Disease Control sends them into the state.

One of the software creators, Dr. Ajay Vinze at the W.P. Carey School at ASU hopes to facilitate "Efficiency, effectiveness and equitability."

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health often has to decide where to send new doses of the vaccine within a couple of hours.

"What existed before was that you would get all this data from so many sources," Vinze said. "What this is doing is that it consolidates the data for the health department."

The software uses criteria such as the type of vaccine and the people who've already received them, based on that, the program tells the health department where new doses should go, then distribute the
vaccines accordingly.

The system does not make decisions at the individual level, such as who gets the vaccine, but rather ensures that the vaccine is allotted in a manner that would reach the critical groups most effectively.

"The system only makes a recommendation, not the decision," he said.

The software was custom built for MCDPH in regards to the immediate needs of Maricopa residents and is updated procedurally by Maricopa Health officials. Data sent by the department sets up all the locations
where vaccines can be sent to and administered.

"The system aims to make sure there is an equitable distribution to the people in Maricopa County while accounting for the CDC guidelines on the priority sequence for the recipients." Vinze said.

Before the software was used, the health department was using spreadsheets and figuring out distribution methods by hand. In an attempt to quickly keep track of doses, Maricopa County asked ASU to
help them better allocate vaccinations.

"Recognizing the critical and sensitive nature of the allocation decision, they (MCDPH) wanted something immediately and felt information technology would help." he said.

The program is just a few weeks old, and there's still no name for it, but Maricopa County officials have seen great progress in the program's short time.

"It was impossible without this software," said Bob England, the Director for the Maricopa Health Department. "It would have quickly become impossible as the amount of vaccine increased. This was the
only way to spread out the vaccine in a way that allowed us to target it to those who needed it most and at the same time send it to where it was getting used quickly."

England sees this program as not only helping the department better distribute vaccinations, but also quickly preventing others from getting the virus by receiving vaccines faster.

"The bottom line is that it's making a difference in people's lives," he said.