VCI Launches SMART Health Card to US Residents

A private-public partnership of technology and healthcare companies called the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), which includes Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle and the Mayo Clinic, has created a verifiable digital proof of vaccination called the SMART Health Card.

The Biden administration has resisted getting behind a national digital vaccination certification system in the US, leaving Americans relying on paper vaccination records from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention – a paper based solution that can be lost or easily faked, and which requires human investigation to confirm authenticity.

As Americans encounter an increasing number of places, domestically and internationally, asking them to show proof of their vaccination status, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a paper solution is not going to be sufficiently secure or efficient.

The US gets SMART

Which is why the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI has created the SMART Health Card.

The SMART system generates a QR code that can be accessed through a smartphone or printed out on paper. When the code is pulled up, only the individual’s name, date of birth and vaccination information is visible. No other medical information or personal data is shared. This code is also digitally signed to ensure that the card was issued from a verified location and to prevent forgery.

State by state

SMART Health Cards are already available to nearly 100 million US residents.

Americans can currently gain access to a SMART Health Card if they live in a state that was an early adopter of the SMART system. New York has its Excelsior Pass and California has its Digital Covid-19 Vaccine Record. Residents of Louisiana can add their COVID vaccination records to the LA Wallet, which uses the SMART system. Hawaii has started offering the Hawaii SMART Health Card, a state-issued digital record that may be used to confirm vaccination status to businesses and venues that require it. In addition, some cities – like New York City and Los Angeles – offer their own digital vaccine mobile wallets to residents.

County by county

But the granularity of who can and who can’t access a SMART card gets even finer when you go from state level down to county level.

For example, Maryland does not offer a state-wide SMART Health Card, but residents of six different counties can get a free SMART Health Card through a partnership with VaccineCheck.

In fact, regardless of where you live in the US, you can subscribe to VaccineCheck if you are prepared to pay the fee of $24.95 per year to get a verified digital vaccination card.

Every state’s health department keeps track of immunisation records and can tell whether it’s possible to get a digital proof of your COVID status.

Eight states and territories use a platform called MyIRMobile, which allows residents to obtain their immunisation records on a PDF that can be either printed or stored on their phones. MyIRMobile is available in Arizona, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Dakota, Washington and West Virginia, and it is rolling out soon in Puerto Rico. While MyIRMobile does not provide a QR code, it does offer an official, verified record from each participating state.

Two states – Utah and New Jersey – are using a CDC-approved app called Docket, and it is rolling out soon in other states. Docket gives users electronic access to their own COVID vaccination records and provides a QR code to attest vaccination status.

Some states, including Colorado, let residents store their vaccination information in the same digital wallet as their Mobile Driver’s Licence (mDL). Coloradans can add a photograph of their vaccine record or of their paper vaccine card to their MyColorado app to have an easily accessible digital vaccine record.

Healthcare providers, pharmacies and grocery chains

Dozens of major health systems and hospital groups across the US now offer SMART Health Cards to patients.

These include Kaiser Permanente, Tenet Health, Scripps Healthcare and Cerner.

Big regional healthcare groups in the SMART consortium span the country, from Centra Health in Virginia to UCHealth in Colorado and from CoxHealth in Missouri to SoutheastHEALTH in Alabama and Georgia.

You can also obtain a free SMART Health Card if you were vaccinated at any branch of the dozens of pharmacy companies participating in the ‘retail pharmacy program’.

Even though there is still no federal mandate for a digital proof of vaccination (see IDN April 2020), for many Americans it is relatively easy to get digital proof of vaccination if they got their shots at a state-run site, a national pharmacy chain or a local healthcare provider.

But obtaining a digital vaccination record is considerably more challenging if you were vaccinated outside the mainstream system, such as US military veterans, whose official vaccine records might live in various locations, depending on where they were vaccinated.