Immunisation checks: there's an app for that

Cambridge Consultants and Diagnostics For All are working together to demonstrate a mobile phone application that can read a simple test for whether a child has been immunised. Globally, one in five children does not receive even the most basic vaccines; as a result, around 1.5 million children die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Diagnostics For All developed a paper-based diagnostic device to test immunisation in children. After a swab from a child’s mouth is applied to the device, the test is “as simple as watching a spot on a postage stamp-sized piece of paper change colour”, according to CEO Marcus Lovell Smith.

But the company “needed a low-cost and portable device that could be used in conjunction with [the] assay”, he continued, which is where Cambridge Consultants came in. The company developed a smartphone application which could analyse and transmit the results, thus discovering the immunity status of the child.

Cambridge Consultants Program Manager David Chastain said the low-cost technology is “ideal for developing countries, where mobile devices can transform healthcare delivery at the point of care”. The goal of the project, he said, “is to facilitate medical support in remote areas where there may be little or no access to medical facilities or trained doctors and nurses to administer the tests”.

Not only can the data collected be used to make a decision on the ground, but it can also be shared on a regional or national basis to inform vaccine delivery programs. This is especially important as the Decade of Vaccines Collaboration - an organisation composed of leading figures from the international vaccine community - says only evidence-based, country-led prioritisation and planning can extend the benefits of immunisation services to everyone.

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