Research on Digital Tools for Vaccination
Our goal is to achieve privacy, equity, and efficiency of the distribution so vulnerable populations can be
reached, unrecognized gaps can be addressed, and the learning can be harnessed for future pandemic
preparedness.
Our team’s research includes cryptographic protocols for data interoperability and privacy, human-centered
design for apps used by residents, and publications on policy and strategy.
In the near-term we are considering five main problems:
- Indicating vaccine eligibility based on priority tiers (vaccine coupons)
- Second dose coordination (privacy-preserving record linkage)
- Vaccine verification/passports (interoperability and privacy)
- Vaccine safety and efficacy monitoring (long-term, crowdsourced monitoring of safety and efficacy using private aggregation)
- Trust and communication (social media analytics, contextual messaging)
Protocols, App Design, and Papers
Upcoming Events
January 26th, 2021
Welcome and Introductions
12:00 PM EST
Invited Panel
12:15 PM EST
Phased Vaccinations
12:30 PM EST
Coordinating Two Doses
1:15 PM EST
Monitoring Side Effects
2:00 PM EST
Conclusion and Next Steps
2:45 PM EST
Past Events
January 19th, 2021
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM EST
Encrypted Vaccination Cards and Digital Solutions to Empower Citizens for the Vaccine Rollout
Can a new vaccination card simplify the user vaccination journey and create data-rich monitoring of the progress in vaccination?
Vaccination coordination is facing daunting challenges. Citizens are expected to navigate an array of websites and health authorities are using disconnected health IT systems. Reporting lags by several days. Following up with vaccinated subjects to monitor side effects is difficult. The systems to monitor ineffective batches of vaccines are yet to become mature. Vaccine verifications documents are prone to fraud.
MIT and IDEO have developed a modification of today's vaccination cards to provide end-to-end encryption, vaccination tracking, and authenticated uploads to CDC systems like v-safe or VAMS. The card dramatically simplifies phased vaccinations, second dose coordination, reporting of side effects, and credentials using an accompanying off-line app. It also creates data-rich monitoring of vaccination progress while eliminating red tape, privacy-concerns, and fraud. It is ideally suited for vulnerable populations, rural areas, labor unions of essential workers, and employers helping their own employees.
SafePaths Protocol for Vaccination without the Red Tape
Ramesh Raskar, MIT
Logistics for the Last Mile of Vaccination
Sanjay Sarma, MIT
Cryptographic Protocols for Vaccine Eligibility, Dose Coordination, and Reporting Side Effects
Anna Lysyanskaya, Brown University, and Abhishek Singh, MIT
Designing a New Vaccination Card
IDEO
Boost19 App For Us All
Vitor Pamplona, PathCheckFoundation
The Vaccine Credentials Initiative
Brian Anderson, MITRE
LFPH and the Covid Credentials Initiative
Brian Behlendorf, Linux Foundation
Vaccines for All Conferences
Disparities in equitable distribution, vaccine efficacy, duration of immunity, multi-dose adherence, and privacy-focused user experience are among the most critical difficulties that must be addressed. The biggest hurdles in designing digital solutions which engage citizens in this pandemic are human and societal as well as technological. Trust at all levels and among all participants is mandatory for success. Can participatory real time epidemiology and user-centric crowd-sourced solutions help? The deployment of exposure notification/health passport apps is a promising start.
The conference brought together experts and stakeholders to address the consequences impacting
disease-spread, individual behaviour, society, the economy, and data privacy.
Vaccines for All Conference Agenda
December 11, 2020
Welcome + Plenary Session
Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO, Gavi
Professor Deb Roy, Executive Director, MIT Media Lab, MIT
Professor Lawrence Gostin, Director of the WHO Center on Global Health Law, Georgetown University
Victor J. Dzau, President, National Academy of Medicine
Keynote
Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry of India
Short Address
Tim Waltz, Governor, Minnesota
Discussion
Lou Leon Guerrero, Governor, Guam
Ramesh Raskar, Associate Professor, MIT
Assessing Health Outcomes
Moderator: Susan Blumenthal, M.D.
Panelists: Bruce Gellin, Joshua Sharfstein, Shantanu Nundy, Victor J. Dzau
Communication and Public Trust
Moderator: Shirley Bergin
Panelists: Celine Gounder, Melissa Fleming, Lisa Sherman
Vaccine Coordination and Participatory Apps
Moderator: Bobbie S. Johnson
Panelists: Bill Patterson, Ryan Oakes, Adam Berrey
Expert Roundtable - COVID-19 and Citizen Centric Tech
Participants: Peter Schwartz, Sanjay Sarma, Suvrit Sra, Nicholas St. Fleur, Noel Hara, Anil Sharma, Susan Garfield
Spotlight Presentations
Participants: Authors of Spotlight Presentations
Recent Work
SafePaths: Vaccine Diary Protocol and Decentralized Vaccine Coordination System using a Privacy Preserving User Centric Experience (Draft)
Finalist, Facebook Data Challenge
Verifiable Proof of Health Using Public Key Cryptography (Draft)
Finalist, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Emergency Response for the Healthcare System Innovation Challenge
Congressional Testimony: Exposure Notification and Contact Tracing: How AI Helps Localities Reopen Safely and Researchers Find a Cure
First app to launch Mar 15th, Apps Gone Rogue