Backup Automation Using Power Automate for Malaysian Vaccination Centres

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the world, especially the vaccine centres when it comes to logistics, maintenance of records, and issuing of vaccination certifications. The Malaysian vaccination centres (PPVs) known as Pusat Pemberian Vaksin in Malaysia have a secure, and reliable system to maintain records of who has been vaccinated and when. No system is fully secure and reliable, thus there needs to be a backup if anything happens to the records like data loss or tampering of records. Although the information flow is simplified using the MySejahtera app and scanning of QR codes, there is no contingency prepared should the system go offline at PPVs. Therefore, this PPV Backup Automation solution was commissioned to transfer local records using spreadsheet programs from PPVs that recorded patient data manually and to feed them directly into the Malaysian Vaccination Administration Services (MyVAS) servers once they come online in batch processing mode. Microsoft’s Power Automate Desktop software was used to automate this process, saving manpower time of entering information from the spreadsheet to the webform one by one. We highlight some alternative technologies for automation, discuss some challenges encountered and future work to improve the system as well.