Dutch technology services provider AntTail, which specialises in cold-chain logistics, has developed an IoT data-tracking system to safeguard the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Uruguay.

The technology is based on Siemens subsidiary Mendix’s low-code platform, which enables the Uruguayan government to distribute and store the vaccinations according to specific refrigeration requirements, allowing officials to vaccinate their population rapidly.

With partner Va-Q-Tec, AntTail can ship the specially designed cooling boxes to every corner of the South American country. These temperature-controlled boxes, each containing over a thousand vaccination doses, can be used for storage, removing the need for additional specially designed refrigerators. This way, every possible location in the country, including remote areas, can serve as vaccination distribution centres.

The Mendix-built application monitors attached sensors to determine the exact temperature inside the box. To maintain medical efficacy, vaccines need to be stored at 5˚C during the 48 hours before vaccination. Thanks to the application, end users don’t have to open the sealed boxes to check the temperature, ensuring consistent temperature and round-the-clock real-time monitoring.

AntTail built the IoT application with the Mendix low-code platform in three months. Low-code software development enables developers of varied experience levels to create applications for web and mobile, using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic through a graphical user interface.

With Bluetooth connectivity, data from 300 mobile sensors attached to the boxes are gathered and saved on the secure AntTail cloud (AntCloud). The results are downloaded onto the Mendix-built integrated platform and accessed via smartphone.

For data visualisations and read-outs, the AntTail team chose to work with AntLux Bluetooth wireless sensors on the boxes, measuring the temperature of the shipped vaccines. Box openings will be reported to AntCloud to check if the boxes are opened during transit. The Mendix app pushes the data to the backend database, which runs on AWS. Subsequently, the status will appear on the mobile device used to scan the box.

“The app will show the history of the box, showing the temperature from loading, transport to storage,” said Mark Roemers, CEO of AntTail. “An audit will show who scanned the box, so we can be sure where the box has been and who used it. After a box returns, we’re able to re-use the sensors, creating a zero-waste channel.”

The business case in Uruguay proved that a nation is able to vaccinate a large part of the population in just a couple of months, representing an example for countries that fall behind in their vaccination strategies.

“It’s very satisfying to see the latest Mendix software work in all corners of the world, even in the middle of nowhere,” said Roemers.

Nienke Faber, customer success manager at Mendix, added: “Mendix and AntTail have been partners for several years. We’re extremely proud they’ve created a solution that also makes a difference in fighting Covid-19. The application is providing true transparency by making data easily accessible to the government and the people of Uruguay. By leveraging the Mendix low-code platform, AntTail has brought an innovation to the Covid-19 pandemic that benefits millions of people.” 

In a pandemic-disrupted world, software is the new lifeblood of daily lives and the connective tissue holding together the global economy. However, traditional software development takes far too long and very often fails to deliver the results business needs and users love. Even prior to Covid-19, there were simply not enough professional software developers in the world to build all the software required.

The global pandemic has accelerated and exacerbated what was already a software and business crisis. Enter low-code software development. Low-code from Mendix is an enterprise-grade visual development approach empowering citizens and professional developers to make cloud-native applications more than ten times faster for web and mobile using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic, all through an intuitive graphical user interface.