After the success of the Co-WIN platform, the government is looking to repurpose the technology for various healthcare cases. CoWIN is currently being repurposed for the universal immunisation program (UIP).
It will bring the ease of discovery of vaccination centres/camps and reminders for subsequent vaccinations for preventable diseases for mothers and the newly born, said CoWIN chief and CEO of the National Health Authority, Dr. R.S. Sharma.
Explained | What do we know about COVID-19’s origins?
He added the addition of digitally verifiable certificates for routine immunisation would be the first of its kind globally and a great way to start building longitudinal health records for a child right from its birth.
“In addition to immunisation, the platform would also be considered for the use-cases of blood donation and organ donation in the months to come,’’ he said.
Stating that the CoWIN system has faced no major challenges so far, he said the new milestone to be achieved now is to adapt to the nuances of the UIP and bring the ease of technology to more domains in health. And the fact that to date, no valid complaint has been made on any form of data leak from the CoWIN platform puts all arguments against its security to rest.
Dr. Sharma said the country has been focusing on increasing the reach of technology through its Digital Public Goods (DPGs), and the prowess of these DPGs has been seen with the success of Unified Payments Interface (UPI), DigiLocker, and Aadhaar-based authentications.
Also read | In race for monkeypox vaccines, experts see repeat of COVID-19
“It was based on the learnings of building such DPGs and leveraging their technology further that we were able to build an open platform like Co-WIN.With CoWIN, India has created a unique model that addresses diversity, is interoperable and hence the ecosystem is friendly that allows for innovation,’’ he said.
He added that technology has been integral to India’s fight against COVID-19 and the CoWIN platform was developed in no time, leveraging experience in developing and implementing large scale applications such as Aadhaar, UPI, GST, etc.
