An investigation into electronic vaccination cards for minors in Gauteng, South Africa
Wesley Moonsamy, Shawren Singh · 2019
Vaccination cards have been used to keep track of minors' immunisation records in South Africa for over 30 years. According to (Kleynhans, 2011), the South African government is moving towards the use of electronic systems for the storage and examination of information. Healthcare information is also following in these steps. South Africa has a clearly defined electronic health strategy, which is to utilise information and communications technologies in healthcare to inter alia engage in medical research, promote health education, monitor diseases and track public health (Department of Health, 2012). Supporting this strategy means digitising the current paper-based systems. The result would be information that can be stored safely, backed up and analysed more easily than paper-based journals, documents and vaccination cards. This research reviews the old but widely used and accepted paper-based vaccination card system and leads into an investigation on an electronic vaccination record system (e-Vaccination). The pivotal question that arises from this investigation is: What are the perceptions of the key stakeholders towards replacing the current paper-based vaccination card with e-Vaccination? Nurses, doctors, parents and school administration staff have been identified as the key stakeholders who will answer this question in the form of a research survey.