A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan
COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational in...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151327 |
| _version_ | 1826190447370829824 |
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| author | Majima, Eishi |
| author2 | Moser, Bryan R. |
| author_facet | Moser, Bryan R. Majima, Eishi |
| author_sort | Majima, Eishi |
| collection | MIT |
| description | COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational information on COVID-19 vaccinations publicly available. This research evaluated vaccination trends in 49 countries and developed the model of vaccination trends in Japan to understand the operational mechanisms of national-scale projects. The international comparison revealed Japan’s slow vaccine authorizations and yet the 13th earliest and 3rd fastest to achieve the achievement of 70% full vaccination coverage. Globally comparing the daily vaccination trends exhibited a slow pace in Japan’s first 80 days of the vaccination project. The study found the different levels of ceiling effects of vaccine distributions on daily first-dose vaccinations by vaccine category in Japan. Based on the observations, the research developed a system dynamics model on vaccination trends with four operational factors: willing people to take vaccines, daily vaccine deliveries, vaccine stocks on sites, and human resource capacities. The model fit the actual 7-day smoothed daily vaccination trends with the R-squared of 0.943, 0.909, and 0.915 for the total, first, and second doses with Pfizer/BioNTech and Takeda/Moderna vaccines in the primary series in Japan. The simulation predicted cumulative vaccination trends with 70% coverage achievement period errors (percentage errors) of 10 days (4.24%), 12 days (5.41%), and 8 days (3.23%) for the total, first, and second doses, respectively. The developed model was applied to explore room for operational improvement in Japan for resource-saving and acceleration purposes. The experiment demonstrated the potential savings of over 20 thousand healthcare worker recruitments without vaccination delay due to vaccine supply constraints and by a modified team structure in sites with the higher nurse–doctor ratio of 3 or more. For acceleration purposes, the model estimated limited opportunities with human resource management under the vaccine supply constraints, only shortening the 70% full vaccination coverage period by 3 days. This research provides performance metrics and a simulation tool for model-based project planning and management applicable to future pandemics and public emergency responses by practitioners. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:40:23Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/151327 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:40:23Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1513272023-08-01T04:18:30Z A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan Majima, Eishi Moser, Bryan R. System Design and Management Program. COVID-19 vaccination played a critical role in preventing the spread of the disease in the global pandemic. Research on operational mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination projects is limited compared with the epidemiologic and socio-economic studies. Japan is a unique country with various operational information on COVID-19 vaccinations publicly available. This research evaluated vaccination trends in 49 countries and developed the model of vaccination trends in Japan to understand the operational mechanisms of national-scale projects. The international comparison revealed Japan’s slow vaccine authorizations and yet the 13th earliest and 3rd fastest to achieve the achievement of 70% full vaccination coverage. Globally comparing the daily vaccination trends exhibited a slow pace in Japan’s first 80 days of the vaccination project. The study found the different levels of ceiling effects of vaccine distributions on daily first-dose vaccinations by vaccine category in Japan. Based on the observations, the research developed a system dynamics model on vaccination trends with four operational factors: willing people to take vaccines, daily vaccine deliveries, vaccine stocks on sites, and human resource capacities. The model fit the actual 7-day smoothed daily vaccination trends with the R-squared of 0.943, 0.909, and 0.915 for the total, first, and second doses with Pfizer/BioNTech and Takeda/Moderna vaccines in the primary series in Japan. The simulation predicted cumulative vaccination trends with 70% coverage achievement period errors (percentage errors) of 10 days (4.24%), 12 days (5.41%), and 8 days (3.23%) for the total, first, and second doses, respectively. The developed model was applied to explore room for operational improvement in Japan for resource-saving and acceleration purposes. The experiment demonstrated the potential savings of over 20 thousand healthcare worker recruitments without vaccination delay due to vaccine supply constraints and by a modified team structure in sites with the higher nurse–doctor ratio of 3 or more. For acceleration purposes, the model estimated limited opportunities with human resource management under the vaccine supply constraints, only shortening the 70% full vaccination coverage period by 3 days. This research provides performance metrics and a simulation tool for model-based project planning and management applicable to future pandemics and public emergency responses by practitioners. S.M. 2023-07-31T19:31:33Z 2023-07-31T19:31:33Z 2023-06 2023-06-23T19:55:26.833Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151327 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Majima, Eishi A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan |
| title | A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan |
| title_full | A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan |
| title_fullStr | A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan |
| title_short | A Case Study of Project Management of COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan |
| title_sort | case study of project management of covid 19 vaccination in japan |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/151327 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT majimaeishi acasestudyofprojectmanagementofcovid19vaccinationinjapan AT majimaeishi casestudyofprojectmanagementofcovid19vaccinationinjapan |