Karachi: Sindh digitizes the immunization process

Karachi: Sindh Health Department in collaboration with Interactive Research and Development (IRD) conducted a seminar on the 23rd of June, praising the effort of healthcare workers and other partners working on digitizing the immunization.
Sindh Electronic Immunization Registry – Zindagi Mehfooz (SEIR-ZM) is a program that has allowed for better data compilation and recording in the province. Secretary Health, Mr Zulfiqar Shah, Director Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Dr Irshad Memon, COO PPHI, Mr Javed Ahmed Abro, and others chaired the event and mobile phones were handed over to vaccinators from different districts.
In order to continue improvement in this endeavour they held a meeting to present the data to show how digitizing the immunization process has helped in significantly improving the rates of inoculated children, follow-up vaccinations and covering otherwise missed regions and
The phones had the SEIR app already installed and as mentioned by Secretary Health, Mr. Zulfiqar Shah, the vaccinators only have to log in and update their locations throughout their work day as well as how many children were immunized and which areas were covered.

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In 2017, Sindh Electronic Immunization Registry – Zindagi Mehfooz (SEIR-ZM) application was integrated into the Government of Sindh’s Department of Health’s EPI Portfolio and scaled up to cover all 30 districts in the province.
In recent years, the application’s use has expanded to the district of Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Islamabad Capital Territory.
To date, over 5.9 million children and 2.0 million women have been enrolled in SEIR-ZM, and the application is being used by over 3,300 vaccinators across the province, with the mission to leave no child behind.
SEIR-ZM has played a pivotal role in advancing health and immunization goals in Sindh, particularly in the Super High-Risk Union Councils of Karachi. Not only have we been able to track individual-level child’s immunization status but also have been able to monitor vaccinator’s performance and have seen significant improvements in vaccinator’s attendance and compliance.
Through the SEIR-ZM, the Health Department, Government of Sindh has access to real-time data which has led to a marked improvement in vaccinator attendance and compliance and improved the capacity of the EPI Department, Sindh for better monitoring, evaluation, and accountability, resulting in improved immunization coverage across the province.