A broad coalition of
health and technology companies have created the Vaccination Credential Initiative,
an effort to give consumers digital access to their vaccination records in a
secure, verifiable and privacy-preserving way to support the return to travel, work, school and more.
Participants include
Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, The Commons Project Foundation, Mayo Clinic and seven
others.
The coalition is
developing a standard model for organizations administering COVID-19 vaccines
to provide proof of the action in an accessible, interoperable, digital format.
The goal is to give
consumers the ability to store an encrypted copy of their immunization
credential in a digital wallet of their choice, such as Apple Wallet or Google
Pay. Those without smartphones could receive paper printed with QR codes
containing W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) verifiable credentials.
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“As the world begins to
recover from the pandemic, having electronic access to vaccination, testing,
and other medical records will be vital to resuming travel and more,” says Mike
Sicilia, executive vice president of Oracle’s Global Business Units.
“This process needs to
be as easy as online banking. We are committed to working collectively with the
technology and medical communities, as well as global governments, to ensure
people will have secure access to this information where and when they need
it.”
This initiative is
developing in tandem with other digital passport projects, including the CommonPass
from The Commons Project Foundation, in partnership with the World Economic
Forum and public and private partners from 37 countries. The CommonPass app,
which stores COVID test and vaccination records, is currently being tested by airlines
including JetBlue, Lufthansa and United Airlines.
“The goal of the
Vaccination Credential Initiative is to empower individuals with digital access
to their vaccination records so they can use tools like CommonPass to safely
return to travel, work, school, and life, while protecting their data privacy,”
says Paul Meyer, CEO of The Commons Project Foundation.
“Open standards and
interoperability are at the heart of VCI's efforts and we look forward to
supporting the World Health Organization and other global stakeholders in
implementing and scaling open global standards for health data
interoperability.”
IATA
is developing its Travel Pass digital health credential in partnership with
identity solution developer Evernym and says it will be used by “most of the world’s
biggest airlines” starting in March.