Yorkshire firm mobilises 75 million Covid-19 vaccinations

A year on from the first Covid-19 vaccination (December 8, 2020), Leeds-based Emis said it was the first UK provider to launch a clinical software system that could support the NHS in mobilising the largest vaccination programme in its history.

With 98.9 million doses administered in England so far, Emis has supported 77 per cent of all vaccinations.

For the first seven months of the programme, Emis was the only provider of the technology needed to drive and record vaccinations within GP practices, pharmacies and mass vaccination centres across England.

Richard Jarvis, chief technology officer of Emis said: “I’m incredibly proud of what the Emis team has been able to deliver over the last 12 months and how it continues to support the NHS in the largest vaccination programme on record.

“When the NHS asked for our help we mobilised a programme to support them. The team worked extremely hard to develop a point of care system that could be ready by day one of the vaccination roll-out.

“It’s now a year since the first vaccination was given and it’s rewarding to see how that hard work has helped so many millions of people in England.”

The software, which was delivered within an eight week time frame and continues to evolve through the roll-out of the booster vaccination drive, was built using the IT system Outcomes4Health.

Outcomes4Health was developed by Pinnacle, a company acquired by Emis Group in early 2020 to record clinical services provided by community pharmacies, including the annual flu vaccination programme.

For each of the 75 million vaccinations recorded to date through Outcomes4Health, the patient record is collated and shared to the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) and GP clinical systems within a matter of hours. It then appears for patients to see via the NHS app and Patient Access.

In addition to its work to help mobilise the Covid-19 vaccination programme, Emis also played a vitally important role in the research which identified the 1.5 million people most at risk from the disease and who should be prioritised for early vaccination.

This research raised public awareness of key Covid-19 risk factors such as age, ethnicity and body mass index, as well as certain medical conditions and treatments.

Through Outcomes4Health, Emis also helped to administer over 2.2m flu vaccinations in England during 2020.