What is a Smart Health Card?
SMART Health Cards are paper or digital versions of clinical information, such as vaccination history or test results. They allow people to keep a copy of their records on hand and easily share this information with others if they choose to do so. Although there is no globally standardized definition, the term SMART Health Card can be used to refer to a broad range of digital vaccination certificates that are now in circulation such as:
• The EU Green Certificate
• The NHS (UK) Vaccine Certificate
• The Swisspass (Switzerland)
• More than 100 million digital vaccine certificates currently available in the USA
• The digital vaccine certificates of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore
And a growing number of other countries that are adopting these international standards. As mentioned earlier, the use of the these types of certificates is strongly encouraged by the World Health Organization which has increased the speed of adoption by nations around the world.
Although there are regulatory and technological difference between the different types of SMART Health Cards, they have some core elements in common:
• They contain encrypted data that come directly from a citizen´s clinical record, usually in the HL 7 (FHIR) standard format that allows for global interoperability
• The data is encrypted at source and locked with a private key that belongs to the government. This key can then be shared with other governments, thereby allowing for a trust network between nations
• The way in which the data is encrypted means that it is very difficult to forge a SMART Health Card
• In order to validate a presented SMART Health Card, access to the encryption key is necessary to allow for a fully Offline control process where privacy by design in the validation protocol means that no database query is necessary.
Although SMART Health Cards are currently being used to control validated COVID vaccination status, their application to public health administration goes well beyond the control of the current COVID pandemic. By implementing SMART Health Cards, governments are adopting a technology platform that:
• Allows for a state of readiness for any future pandemic
• Allows for other clinical data sets such as other vaccinations of communicable diseases to also be encrypted and controlled in the way in which COVID vaccination status is being controlled
• Allows for fully and secure offline communication of medical data sets in rural areas improving the administration of public health and the delivery of medical services
In summary, these global standards and their proliferation across the globe represent a significant opportunity for African nations to make a stepchange and become leaders in the way in which they will live WITH this virus. And perhaps most importantly, there is a significant amount of financing available to assist African nations in implementing the technologies necessary to get ready!
The Nexplain Smart Health Card system
In response to the needs defined above, Nexplain has developed a Universal Smart Health Card, linking it to our other COVID related technologies with the following characteristics that are unique in the market:
• We capable of converting existing vaccination data into globally interoperable and verifiable Digital Vaccine Credentials that are both compliant with the EU system AND with the Smart Health Card standards at the same time
• This means that governments can formally apply for acceptance into the EU system allowing their vaccine and test certificates to be accepted in more than 40 countries in a system of mutual recognition that now unites more than 700 million people
• At the same time, by implementing Smart Health Cards as the basis for local vaccine passports, governments can use this standard to expand certificates to the control of other communicable diseases. The major innovation here is that we have included the HL7 standard and FHIR protocol into our technology allowing for the creation of digital clinical records
• Our technology also integrates these new COVID Vaccination standards into border control systems, an area where we have been technology leaders for more than 15 years. This integration allows COVID (and in the future – other pandemics) control to become a part of normal passport
• In the private sector we have developed digital frameworks that can be integrated into existing technologies where we combine a person´s verified Digital identity and their verified COVID status. This allows for a wide variety of use cases that have now become relevant due to the wave of COVID related legislation across the globe.
In summary, Nexplain has created a series of technologies that focuses on the now permanent link between Identity and Health Status with a multitude of interoperable use cases:
• Globally recognized Digital COVID Certificates allowing for universal validation of COVID status
• A platform that allows public health authorities to quickly develop digital clinical records
• Integrations that allow for more secure and much faster pandemic control at borders
• Digital Identity and Health Status validation that allows businesses to add new value to customer experience in a wide variety of industries
• A Universal COVID Validation platform, specifically aimed at the Tourism industry, that allow for seamless compliance with new legislation in more than 80 countries around the world
