The Albanian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with project Optimize, developed a registry-based immunization information system. This fact sheet illustrates how the data the new system produces has been used to improve the management of the country's vaccination program, how it is changing the way people collaborate, how it ensures timely and equal access to immunization for all children, and how it reduces the administrative burden on staff.

Publication date: November 2012

Region: Global

This fact sheet provides an overview of rotavirus disease and vaccines in Tanzania. It includes information about the tremendous burden of rotavirus diarrhea in Tanzanian children, rotavirus diarrhea treatment and prevention strategies, and the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccines. It also lists countries that have introduced rotavirus vaccines into their national immunization programs.

Publication date: November 2012

Region: Africa

Part of series: Rotavirus disease and vaccines fact sheets

This project Optimize document summarizes a laboratory report on performance testing of four models of domestic refrigerators that are available on the Tunisian market. Project Optimize contracted the tests to demonstrate to the government the importance of prequalification of models according to World Health Organization quality, safety, and standards for the storage of vaccines.

Author: Lloyd J, McCarney S, Ouhichi R

Publication date: October 2012

Region: Africa

Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and PATH, is helping national immunization programs prepare for the future. This fact sheet describes how project Optimize worked in Vietnam with national, regional, and local partners to help introduce VaxTrak, a software program that allows users at various levels of the health system to track vaccine stock and report monthly immunization activity. Find out more about PATH's work in digital health solutions.

Publication date: October 2012

Region: Asia

Project Optimize and the Tunisian Ministry of Public Health are collaborating to explore new logistics and supply chain solutions that can optimize the vaccine supply chain. This report describes a study that project Optimize commissioned to assess the least-cost, most energy-efficient solution for pharmaceutical stores at the regional and district level.

Author: Lloyd J, McCarney S

Publication date: October 2012

Region: Africa

This overview describes how PATH has developed a low-cost and straightforward technology for protecting aluminum-adjuvanted liquid vaccines from the irreversible damage that results from freezing. Many current vaccines of importance to global health contain an aluminum salt adjuvant or its equivalent (such as aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, or calcium phosphate) and would benefit from the technology.

Publication date: October 2012

Region: Global

This fact sheet provides an overview of rotavirus disease and vaccines in Malawi. It includes information about the tremendous burden of rotavirus diarrhea in Malawian children, rotavirus diarrhea treatment and prevention strategies, and the effectiveness of rotavirus vaccines. It also lists countries that have introduced rotavirus vaccines into their national immunization programs.

Publication date: October 2012

Region: Africa

Part of series: Rotavirus disease and vaccines fact sheets

Between 2010 and 2012, project Optimize collaborated with Vietnam’s National Expanded Program on Immunization to demonstrate innovations in the vaccine supply chain that can help to meet the demands expected as Vietnam’s immunization program continues to grow. This report describes the activities undertaken in Vietnam as part of the collaboration. For a full report on Optimize’s activities in Vietnam, see Optimize: Vietnam Report.

Publication date: October 2012

Region: Asia

Developed in collaboration with national and international partners and coordinated by project Optimize, these action plans describe specific activities and strategies designed to help achieve the 2020 vision for immunization supply and logistics systems. The vision and action plans are divided into five priority areas: vaccine products and packaging, immunization supply system efficiency, environmental impact of immunization supply systems, immunization information systems, and human resources for immunization logistics.

Publication date: September 2012

Region: Global

This document describes the partnership that created the vaccine vial monitor, providing a useful example to policymakers, funders, nongovernmental and multilateral organizations, and product developers of how the public and private sectors can better address today’s greatest global health needs through dynamic, long-term partnerships.

Publication date: September 2012

Region: North America and Europe

This brochure describes how advances in vaccine supply chain systems can accelerate the delivery of lifesaving immunizations to people who need them. The document offers recommendations for global policymakers to support countries in building more effective supply chain systems.

Publication date: September 2012

Region: Global

This project Optimize evidence brief provides supply chain managers in low- and middle-income countries with an overview of the potential benefits of outsourcing components of their vaccine logistics systems to the private sector. It also provides practical advice on determining whether outsourcing is a viable option.

Publication date: September 2012

Region: Global

Part of series: Project Optimize evidence brief series

This document describes how project Optimize is collaborating with the Albanian Institute of Public Health to transform the way immunization data and vaccine stock are managed. The two-year collaboration aims to evaluate the benefits of a supply chain that uses an online immunization registry, remotely connected temperature monitoring devices, and a distribution system organized for optimum efficiency.

Publication date: August 2012

Region: Global

This document describes how project Optimize is collaborating with the Senegalese Ministry of Health to demonstrate innovations in the supply chain that can help to increase efficiency and improve performance, preparing the country for the introduction of new vaccines in the future.

Publication date: August 2012

Region: Global

Today, most health workers at the service‐delivery level in developing countries use paper‐based systems to track the individuals who have been vaccinated and the vaccines and other resources used during the process. Project Optimize, a World Health Organization and PATH collaboration, is working with the Albanian Institute of Public Health to develop and implement an immunization information system that will provide the type of high-quality, granular data that policymakers need.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

Keeping heat-sensitive vaccines and other drugs at the right temperature is crucial yet often difficult in areas with limited or no electrical power. In response to this challenge, a group of public- and private-sector partners is working with project Optimize to evaluate a range of transportation and storage containers for heat-sensitive drugs and vaccines that operate in environments with or without access to reliable power.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

Many health facilities in remote areas operate without grid electricity, have unreliable electricity, or find that using electricity is too costly. In these settings, solar energy is a promising solution for powering the storage and transportation of vaccines and heat‐sensitive drugs at controlled temperatures. Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and PATH, has been working with public and private partners on several solar technologies tailored to the following local electrical power conditions: unavailable or unreliable power, intermittent power, and reliable power.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

Project Optimize is collaborating with the Senegalese Ministry of Health to implement and validate a "moving warehouse" that will streamline the vaccine supply chain from the regional to the peripheral level. A moving warehouse is a truck composed of delivery teams that visit each health facility, check stock levels, and replenish stock as needed.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

This fact sheet outlines the different approaches that project Optimize, a World Health Organization and PATH collaboration, is testing to demonstrate that a consumption‐based system that uses service-delivery-level data can have a beneficial impact on inventory management, stock levels, and vaccine wastage.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global

Project Optimize, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and PATH, aims to provide national immunization programs with recommendations to build integrated health supply systems, including strategic linkages with the parastatal and private sector. Ultimately, integration will allow public health programs to reduce uncertainties and risks, achieve economies of scale, shorten delivery lead times, improve procurement, provide better incentives for health workers, and improve quality of service to clients.

Publication date: July 2012

Region: Global