You may have seen stories on the news about healthcare providers tossing out COVID-19 vaccines due to improper temperature or handling. In a global pandemic that has already been immeasurably tragic, vaccine wastage adds insult to injury. Unfortunately, it’s par for the course: The World Health Organization估计由于设备故障或计划不良，所有疫苗中有50％以上被浪费了。
虽然让某人的手臂射击听起来很简单，但协调超过3亿人的接种实际上非常复杂。幸运的是，IT Services Company兼Oracle合作伙伴Bias Corp.联合创始人兼执行副总裁John Ezzell表示，复杂的技术可以提供帮助 - 包括许多已经有了许多工具。
“FedEx is the leading logistics provider sending millions of packages around the world,” Ezzell said. “Companies like Lowe’s already manage thousands of SKUs across thousands of stores. And plenty of tracking is already in place. The Federal Aviation Administration knows flight information on every plane in the air at all times.”
面临的挑战是将这些碎片放在一起，并从一群大量，不同和不同的利益相关者那里获得买入。
Ezzell说：“结合库存管理，物流和数百万疫苗接种的追踪是新领域。”“这不是这个时代所做的事情。我们拥有技术基础设施，这就是政府能够实施的速度。”
作为基础架构的创建者和管理者，技术公司的理想位置可以帮助事情变得更加顺畅，更快。
“They have the scalability and accessibility,” said Sylvie Thompson, vice president of transformation for NTT DATA Services, an IT service management company.
“Solutions need to be cloud-based and open-source so we can get to it in multiple ways. That’s more important than who’s operating it. As we add more vaccine sites, for example, we layer in more complexity. An open and scalable platform helps facilitate operations.”
Something else that technology companies bring to the table is an appreciation for user experience.
“They’ve spent years honing their specialty and delivering applications that are human-centric,” Thompson said. “Big Tech applications are proven and viable products.”
Thankfully, technology companies aren’t just hearing the call for help. Generously, it’s also answering it. Here are four important ways how.
1.预测需求
技术公司帮助疫苗接种工作的第一种方法是预测需求。例如，IBM使用其Watson Health Analytics软件来获取有关邮政编码的见解，包括居民的人口统计和健康状况，以及他们对疫苗接种的态度。该过程正在帮助医院和州政府确定需要哪个疫苗和想要的区域，以便可以适当地配给供应。
在芝加哥，市政官员使用Salesforce来帮助他们公平分发疫苗。与数字转型服务公司MTX合作，Salesforce平台被用作疫苗管理计划。它的数据驱动分析可以衡量社区参与，确定高优先级的人群并帮助公共卫生机构应对错误信息。
2. Managing the Supply Chain
In light of the cold chain and special handling that COVID vaccines require, supply chain management is another challenge that technology companies are addressing.
“The biggest issue in vaccine distribution is the last mile,” Thompson said.
“It’s the smallest distribution unit, getting the vaccine from the regional holding or storage facility and into an arm. The last mile is always a challenge for supply chain operators. Many third-party logistics providers don’t even venture into last-mile space because of the challenge. But we have consumer patients waiting. Any delay, such as weather or traffic, can magnify the issue.”
将疫苗交付给无法存储它们的设施可以增加浪费的风险。输入人工智能公司宏观眼，该公司使用机器学习来通过分析公共和政府提供的数据和卫星图像来预测国家卫生设施的疫苗准备。
例如，它寻找备用电源的证据和该区域中手机用户的数量。通过组合数据集，它可以对需求以及疫苗安全性做出预测。
3.跟踪患者
Because the tracking requirements for COVID vaccines are more robust than with other inoculations, Big Tech is helping here, too.
“如果收到流感疫苗，就可以填写文书工作，并在手臂上射击，这就是所有的，” Americas Healthcare for Nutanix的Cheryl Rodenfels说。
“批次数量是跟踪但未分配给人的。COVID疫苗需要将特殊的数据字段添加到疫苗接种剂量中，因为它具有小瓶，需要细分。单个剂量需要进行条形码，并归因于要跟踪的特定患者。”
Pharmaceutical companies turned to SAP for help setting up a vaccination collaboration hub where they can manage distribution and patient tracking while also verifying doses in order to prevent counterfeit drugs from reaching patients.
Rodenfels说：“ SAP使医院和卫生系统更容易更快地推出疫苗。”
4.分析数据
Given the sheer amount of information that’s being collected and shared by vaccine makers, logistics companies, health systems, state governments and federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), perhaps the largest challenge to which technology companies are contributing is data management.
Rodenfels说：“从运输跟踪到将疫苗进入注射器的工作流程，标记和给患者施用，这是大量数据。”
“还有副作用的追踪。数据是生成的每个步骤。CDC希望每天看到匿名数字。对于其他药物或疫苗，报告可能每周或每月一次。”
当疫苗接种开始时，从疫苗制造商到医疗保健系统的每个人都必须开发自身的疫苗跟踪系统。
罗德菲尔斯说：“任何医院的CIO都知道这是多么混乱。”“他们正在努力获取疫苗，但他们还没有准备好报告，跟踪，存储和培训。大多数医院定期搁置它。这是大火的洗礼。”
作为回应，Oracle与政府实体合作以帮助管理数据。具体而言，它创建了基于云的电子健康记录数据库，该数据库是一种实时疫苗跟踪系统，现在是CDC的中央疫苗数据存储库以及疫苗接种患者可以报告副作用的门户。
‘The Next Catastrophe’
While pandemics of this size happen only once a century, vaccine technology that has been put in place for COVID-19 may be used in other capacities going forward.
“Who knows what the next catastrophe will be, but now we have documented processes in place,” Ezzell said.
“We’ve seen creative ideas on how to roll this out, and we can look to best practices created across countries, states and municipalities.”
在许多情况下，技术提供商已经超出了预期，并继续完善其解决方案。” Ezzell说。
“我们可以使用我们所学的自然灾害，这些灾难变得越来越普遍。我很乐观，我们将能够利用技术来帮助人们更快。”
Stephanie Vozza is a contributing writer who specializes in business and productivity. She is a columnist for FastCompany.com, and her byline has appeared in Inc., Entrepreneur and Success magazines. Find her on Twitter@StephanieVozza.
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