An Update on VSSM

Many thanks to Mojtaba Haghgou for sharing this with our readers. The TechNet21 website will soon have a software depot from which you will be able to download VSSM and other latest software. Vaccination Supply Stock Management (VSSM) version 4.7, is a computer application, now used in the central stores of 14 countries [1] in different WHO regions. W-VSSM (Web-based Vaccination Supply Stock Management) has been developed and is presently being field tested. Preliminary test results have been promising. The database of the W-VSSM will be installed on a web server and all authorized recipients, such as provincial stores staff, will have access to their own data. Any dispatch from the national store will appear on the screen of the related province as a new shipment. At the province level, they have choices to confirm or deny the shipment or request for adjustment from the higher level site. The administrator of W-VSSM will have access to all reports and the current stock at the lower levels. W-VSSM is developed in MS Visual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition and its database is developed in MS SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. Care has been taken to develop W-VSSM using the various features and terminology of VSSM. Once W-VSSM is launched, the data of those countries already using VSSM will be converted to the web-based VSSM and therefore the historical data will not be lost and there is no need to start from the beginning. There are both success and failure stories in using VSSM during the last two-and-a-half years. The most successful of them was that of Pakistan and Iran—two of the most populated countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). These two countries have been using VSSM since April 2009 and have gathered valuable historical data. Pakistan’s Federal Vaccine Store with 28 cold and freezer rooms and huge dry stores scattered around a large compound in the National Institute of Heath (NIH) in Islamabad could not have been so efficiently organized if it were not for VSSM [2]. Iran presented a different challenge since vaccines are locally produced in unique presentations [3]. There has been no computer application for stock management in Persian, but since VSSM can be easily translated into any language [4] and is fully customizable software, it has been a useful tool in managing stocks in Iran. Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has successfully adopted VSSM in three countries of the region as a pilot project, and VSSM will be installed in the fourth country [5] in November 2010. The Users Guide has been translated into Spanish. EMRO has also recently translated the Guide into Arabic. The challenge presented by the programme in the Philippines is of another nature. The Central Vaccine Store in the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), with its highly organized and sophisticated system, decided to use VSSM at the national level and has so far successfully merged the manual system required by the stringent audit system in the Philippines with reports generated by VSSM. VSSM has been translated into Laotian, one of the rare languages not supported by MS Windows and MS Office. VSSM is now functioning in the National Vientiane Store in Vientiane in Laotian although the translation was not compatible with MS Access, the media used for developing VSSM [6]. Sudan, the first country to have used VSSM version 1 since late 2008, has managed to upgrade their data files to later versions of VSSM locally and without any support from the VSSM team thanks to the simplicity of the software and the use of standard and commonly used packages. VSSM source and codes are provided to all users and they can modify it to suit their situation. UNICEF Somalia uses a special edition of VSSM version 4.6 in complex emergency operations at all levels where the programme is controlled from Nairobi beyond borders of Somalia. UNICEF added extra parameters and fields required for its own programming into standard VSSM successfully. Recently UNICEF Somalia proudly reported that VSSM is now functional in Mogadishu too. The failures that have occurred were in two countries where data were lost due to computer failure and probably virus attacks. The countries failed to comply with a simple instruction to take regular back ups. The other failure was lack of follow-up from higher-ups in some challenging countries. Since some programme managers did not follow up on operations after the implementation of VSSM at their stores and there was high staff turnover, VSSM ceased to function and it was abandoned. PAHO has drafted a checklist for following up on the implementation of VSSM. The checklist is also used by UNICEF Somalia. VSSM version 4.7 now caters for other supplies related to Primary Health Care (PHC) components, including supplies required for control of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS and for programmes such as nutrition and reproductive health and all other injection and cold chain equipment, pharmaceuticals and spare-parts separately and without losing focus on vaccines and diluents. [1] Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Paraguay, and the Philippines. Somalia and Iran have expanded use of VSSM to provincial levels too. [2] Pakistan, with a population of 170 million is vaccinating its entire child population. [3] Locally produced DPT and dT in Iran are presented in 14-dose per vial and OPV in 15-dose per vial. [4] VSSM is available in English, Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish and the language can be changed at any time without affecting data. In addition, VSSM can be translated into any other languages in less than five hours. It has already been translated into Persian (Farsi), Laotian, Mongolian and Vietnamese. [5] Honduras [6] Lao PDR, where the programme was recently assessed using the newly designed EVM assessment tool, scored fairly high on stock management.