Epic has rolled out technology that serves as a digital vaccination verification by binding a person's identity with their vaccination or lab results and displaying it via QR codes on a smartphone, Wisconsin State Journal reported Sept. 27.
Seven things to know:
1. The new tech is currently live for 25 million patients, and 70 million to 80 million people will have access to it by the end of 2022, Nick Frenzer, an Epic implementation executive, told the publication.
2. The tech works similar to a paper vaccine card by linking a person's name and birthdate with vaccination or lab results. However, unlike a CDC-issued paper card, the vaccine credentials can be displayed by QR codes or through Epic's online patient portal MyChart on a mobile device, printed or saved to another mobile app.
3. If MyChart does not yet have a patient's vaccine information, the patient can use the website to query a connected state immunization registry to get the data and generate a QR code.
4. West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health and St. Louis-based SSM Health are accepting the QR codes, as are several Madison, Wis.-based businesses.
5. Verona, Wis.-based Epic said it plans to make the tech available beyond Wisconsin and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration as well as a few states including California and New York. Epic is also in talks with the White House, FDA and CDC about rolling out the tech, according to the report.
6. Epic began working on the tech before 2020 when the pandemic first hit; the EHR company worked alongside VCI, a coalition of public and private organizations working to standardize digital verification of clinical information, Microsoft and Salesforce to explore how people could check their vaccination status or lab results digitally.
7. Epic's tech meets the VCI Initiative's SMART Health Cards Framework, which lets a business or venue use a machine reader to verify vaccination status or lab results. In June, UC San Diego Health became the first U.S. health system to launch a SMART health card for vaccine verification.