Press release

The Commons Project Releases Free App to Scan SMART® Health Cards and Quickly Verify Vaccination Status

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The Commons Project Foundation announced today the release of the SMART Health Card Verifier App, a free application that will enable users nationwide to scan a SMART® Health Card QR code to quickly verify an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status.

The SMART® Health Card Verifier App will empower small businesses, schools, sporting arenas and other organizations to scan a SMART® Health Card and quickly determine its validity and whether the issuer is a verified health data source found in The CommonTrust Network. The app also displays key information including issuer name, vaccine type, dates of vaccine doses, and name and date of birth of vaccine recipient. It does not store or share any personal information, so patrons can feel confident that their data are not being tracked or exploited.

The development of the new app follows recent announcements from Walmart, Sam’s Club, UC San Diego Health, the State of California and the State of Louisiana that individuals who received vaccinations would be issued a SMART®Health Card, a digital vaccine record that can be safely and privately shared with compatible services. Additional states, pharmacy chains and health care providers are expected to begin issuing the cards, built on open, interoperable standards, to their patients in the coming weeks.

“SMART Health Cards were developed by a coalition of private and public stakeholders with the goal of empowering individuals with access to a trustworthy and verifiable copy of their vaccination records in digital or paper form,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, chief information officer at UC San Diego Health. “The cards only contain the information required to verify your vaccination or test status, and the choice of how and when to share that information is totally up to the individual.”

Building on its work with the Vaccination Credential Initiative to develop the SMART Health Card standard, The Commons Project established The CommonTrust Network, a registry of trusted testing providers, vaccination providers, and public health registries. Now, the SMART Health Card Verifier App makes it possible for anyone to scan a SMART Health Card and be confident that it was issued by a reliable provider and that the information presented is accurate. The release of the SMART Health Verifier App, developed in collaboration with Affinidi, marks a critical step towards establishing a global standard for presenting and verifying health information.

“For people to be truly empowered with their health information, meaning that they can use and share it in the ways they find valuable, the data must be able to be widely accepted and trusted,” according to JP Pollak, cofounder and chief architect at The Commons Project. “The addition of the SMART Health Cards Verifier App to the ecosystem will make that reality much more achievable.”

About The Commons Project Foundation

A nonprofit public trust established with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Commons Project Foundation builds and operates digital platforms and services for the common good. Our mission-driven structure is designed to attract world-class talent to build and sustain digital public services in a way that serves people’s interests above all. Beginning with health information, we are focused on empowering people to access and control their personal data and put it to use for their own benefit.

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