The conference will address challenges in designing digital solutions that engage citizens in four core areas—logistics, health outcomes, user-centric impact, and communication. Disparities in equitable distribution, determining vaccine efficacy, duration of immunity, two-dose adherence, and privacy-focused user experience are among the most critical issues that must be addressed. The biggest hurdles in designing digital solutions that engage citizens in this pandemic are human and societal as well as technological. Trust at all levels and among all participants is mandatory for success. Can participatory real-time epidemiology and user-centric crowd-sourced solutions help? The deployment of exposure notification/health passport apps is a promising start.

The conference will bring together experts and stakeholders to discuss the challenges facing Covid-19 vaccine uptake to prevent disease spread, including individual behavior, societal forces, the economy, and data privacy issues. We intend for this virtual conference to lay the foundation for continued collaboration among all stakeholders to advance basic knowledge and to accelerate its practical application to develop solutions that save lives and reduce human suffering.  

Organized by: 

Ramesh Raskar, PhD, Associate Professor, MIT 
Sanjay Sarma, VP of Open Learning, MIT
Susan J. Blumenthal, MD, New America, Health Policy, Visiting Professor, MIT
Jagjit Dhaliwal, MIT Sloan 
Shirley Bergin, formerly, TEDMED
Thomas Kingsley, MD MPH MS, Mayo Clinic