Materna has developed an app to monitor the tolerability of COVID-19 vaccines

As part of its drug safety monitoring programme, the Paul Ehrlich Institute records and assesses adverse reactions to medicines and vaccines in order to take protective measures where necessary. To enable the rapid evaluation of quantitative data on the safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines, end-users can submit information on vaccine tolerability directly via a smartphone app developed for this purpose. The SafeVac 2.0 app has been available for download since 27 December 2020 and is already being used by more than 100,000 people. The IT service provider Materna developed and implemented the app on behalf of the Paul Ehrlich Institute. 

As part of a research project two years ago, the IT service provider Materna, in collaboration with the Paul Ehrlich Institute and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) as part of a research project to develop the SafeVac 1.0 app, which was used to record side effects from the seasonal flu vaccination. The SafeVac 2.0 app is a further development of this app, which can now also be used for the COVID-19 vaccines.

SafeVac 2.0 is an app-based observational study conducted by the Paul Ehrlich Institute, through which the Institute gathers real-time data on the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

How does data transmission via the app work? 

The app, available in German and English, can be downloaded for iOS and Android from the App Store and the Google Play Store. Users can easily download the SafeVac 2.0 app to their smartphone via a QR code. Within four weeks of vaccination, the app sends push notifications at set intervals to enquire about any side effects of the vaccine and, after 6 and 12 months, collects further information on the participant’s state of health. The information entered is stored in encrypted form on the smartphone and transmitted to the Paul Ehrlich Institute using a random number. Use of the app is voluntary; no personal data is collected, and the Paul Ehrlich Institute cannot trace individual reports.
Materna has already developed several apps for the public sector in the field of health protection, such as the NINA alert app and the GESA quarantine app, which have helped relieve the burden on numerous public health authorities in the management and administration of quarantine cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further information is available in the video about the SafeVac app. [Link opens YouTube]

About Materna

The Materna Group currently employs more than 2,400 staff worldwide and achieved a turnover of 355.1 million euros in 2020. Materna covers the entire range of services offered by a full-service provider in the premium segment: from consultancy and implementation to operation. Materna advises and supports companies and public authorities on all aspects of digitalisation and delivers bespoke technologies for agile, flexible and secure IT. Its clients include IT organisations as well as specialist departments within companies and the public sector. The group also comprises various subsidiaries.