Microsoft announces new vaccine management software to address earlier failures

Microsoft has unveiled new technology to boost government and health care organizations’ vaccine management systems, including scheduling shot appointments and monitoring results, to fix shortcomings weeks after the company’s initial custom-built programs ran aground in a few states.

The Microsoft Vaccine Management product released is made up of features and new apps that the software company said will improve upon and fix the glitches that occurred when its previous effort, the Vaccination Registration and Application System, failed to work properly in New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

The company said in an email, the new software “incorporates lessons learned from VRAS regarding scalable architecture, improved user experiences for residents and health care workers”. It also uses health care standards for information transfer so data can be exported more quickly to other record systems, such as electronic medical records. The software also addresses other issues that hampered the previous option, including requiring users to preregister before seeking a COVID-19 vaccine appointment and providing a way to proactively handle spikes in demand.

Microsoft has put considerable effort over the past few years to building and promoting cloud-computing tools for health care providers, as well as selling its ability to manage complex systems that combine older programs and data sources with newer internet-based apps and information. That meant complaints about its initial custom-built vaccine management systems from high-profile politicians and unhappy patients stung. Rival Marc Benioff, Chief Executive Officer of cloud software company Salesforce, tried to use Microsoft’s issues to his advantage, tweeting at government officials last month that he would be happy to replace the Microsoft vaccine cloud software for free with his company’s product.