The Rockefeller Foundation and PATH have announced the launch of a two-year, $5 million partnership to deploy and expand the use of digital health tools in Jamaica, Mali, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, and Zambia.

The Digital Results Improve Vaccine Equity and Demand (DRIVE Demand) project will work with PATH’s Digital Square initiative to help ministries of health utilize digital technologies to understand, track, and influence demand for immunizations. The six countries were chosen based on an evaluation of their responses to COVID-19, including vaccine demand, vaccination rates (both low and high), use of existing open-source global good digital health platforms or systems, and intersection with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Vaccination Access Network (VAN), which was launched this past summer. 

In Zambia, for example, planned DRIVE Demand activities will center on adapting the Zambia Electronic Immunization Registry (ZEIR) by incorporating a new COVID-19 module and expanding its coverage from 22 percent to at least 60 percent of on-site, healthcare worker-led facilities in Lusaka. An enhanced and expanded ZEIR would enable more informed decision making and targeted communications interventions to help increase COVID-19 vaccination coverage while simultaneously tracking routine vaccinations.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant global health events in recent history—but it won’t be the last,” said Rockefeller Foundation digital health initiatives director Greg Kuzmak. “The global community needs to move quickly to prepare for the next threat. Our partners at Digital Square are helping build stronger, more agile health systems that can rise to the challenge.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Fat Camera)