A fellow of the Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CfHE), Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Jignesh Patel has launched a “Vaccination-on-Wheels (VOW)” clinic, a first-of-its-kind service in India, in Pune.
The service was provided in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided funds to Mr. Jignesh Patel under its Grand Challenges Explorations.
Called “VaccineOnWheels.com”, it will go to schools, colleges and corporate offices, to offer vaccination services at their doorsteps. The programme was launched on December 15. This unique, unconventional, creative, low-cost and high on convenience model, has been designed with the idea of ‘reaching the bottom of the pyramid.’
Mr. Jignesh Patel founded Jivika Healthcare to provide this vaccination service. There are many additional features that make it a unique service, including providing low-cost vaccination service to the low-income group, creating awareness for government’s immunization programme and selling only vaccines that are not provided through government and cold chain maintenance as per World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines with state-of-the-art equipment.
Congratulating Mr. Jignesh Patel on launching this service, co-head of CfHE and head of the department of biomedical engineering Renu John said, “This is a unique programme that works hand-in-hand with the government to cover the last mile in delivering vaccines to people of all strata of the society.”
“We have taken this mission to support government and society in getting children fully immunized as per WHO and Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) standards for children who are taking vaccination from government centres. With this mission in mind, our social workers and nurses conduct awareness camps in various areas where the government conducts immunization camps. Through the awareness drive, we educate mothers to get their children vaccinated,” said Mr. Jignesh Patel.
The One-Year Residential Healthcare Entrepreneurship Programme at CfHE helped Mr. Jignesh Patel understand the gaps in vaccine delivery model from close quarters and identify various issues faced by diverse stakeholders primarily from infants, caregivers, parents, in getting vaccinated.
The initiative was appreciated and supported by doctors from Pune Jayant Navarange and Sadhana Lachyan.
On the day of inauguration, the team successfully administered 27 vaccinations to children from low-income group families.
