The University of Tennessee, Knoxville will work with the Tennessee Department of Health, Community Health Councils, and volunteers across Tennessee to identify barriers to vaccinations and create a cross-platform health application called SmartSHOTS. The purpose of the SmartSHOTS App is to increase childhood vaccination rates in Tennessee by identifying, addressing, and overcoming the barriers to vaccine uptake.
In 2018, Tennessee ranked among the bottom 20% of states completing six of the 12 routine vaccines as well as the 24-month-old vaccine series.1 The SmartSHOTS App will help Tennessee parents understand vaccinations, find locations that give vaccines, and address myths about vaccines in children.
Researchers from the University of Tennessee’s Colleges of Nursing, Architecture and Design, and the Tickle College of Engineering are working together to create the health app. Throughout the 4-phase design and rollout, the researchers engage Tennesseans throughout the process of design thinking and systems thinking to learn about the community barriers and resources ensuring the app will meet specific needs of parents in Tennessee.
1 Tennessee Department of Health (2021). Immunization Status Survey 2020. URL: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/cedep-weeklyreports/2020-24-Month-Old-Survey.pdf