Pinpoint launches platform for passenger vaccination guidance

Pinpoint’s new Travel Health Brief service utilises cutting-edge technology and data from leading sources, including the World Health Organisation, to support travel health planning required for cruise holidays. 

Pinpoint Travel Health’s data is also managed and monitored by trained clinical professionals on an ongoing basis.

Builds a personalised health brief

The service allows for an itinerary to be checked with pinpoint precision, not just by country or region but right down to city, town or village level. Every geographical touchpoint that a cruise passenger has, on land or in port, can be built into a personalised health brief. 

This adds accuracy and relevance to travel health planning and can avoid some of the pitfalls of blanket advice on vaccinations and anti-malarials. These include paying unnecessarily for vaccinations, when diseases are only present in some specific locations or in certain seasons. It can also help a cruise customer avoid invalidating their travel insurance cover: some policies specify that ‘recommended’ or ‘correct’ vaccinations and anti-malarials must have been taken up, despite a number of travellers struggling to ascertain what is needed.

Sample Pinpoint Travel Health itinerary planner that could be used to plan travel vaccinations and anti-malarials required for a cruise

Bespoke solutions

‘Costing just £15 for a personalised report, the Travel Health Brief takes the uncertainty out of travel, helps keep a cruise customer’s travel insurance valid and also potentially saves money on any unnecessary vaccinations,’ said Pinpoint Travel Health Director Andrew Halliday. 

‘If the cruise operator generally carries out the planning on behalf of clients, we can take that on board and reduce all of the pain-points, in terms of administration, data input and accuracy. Bespoke solutions can be provided to individual operators, according to their needs,’ he added. 

The process

An individual’s Travel Health Brief is created swiftly: the passenger must fill in their trip details, zoom in on destinations or places to be visited – or use digital mapping to plot out an entire trip if moving between locations.

Screening questions assess when and where they are travelling, their age, activities during the trip and any health conditions, including pregnancy, allergies and current medications. This then generates the personalised report, highlighting any diseases they could encounter and what vaccinations and anti-malarials might be suitable.

Taking this to a travel clinic allows for all vaccinations or medications to be administered swiftly and without duplicate data input and wasted administration time. 

The Travel Health Brief details which clinics are closest to the traveller.

Reduces risk

The service can additionally alleviate the possibility of cruise customers falling seriously ill during a cruise and all that this implies in terms of having to arrange transfer off the ship and appropriate repatriation to a hospital or home.

Guidance on published itineraries 

If a cruise operator becomes a client, Pinpoint Travel Health can assist in other ways, too – like producing guidance for the operator’s published itineraries. Alternatively, if the cruise operator enters into an affiliate scheme, it can earn a commission on any Pinpoint Travel Health Briefs commissioned by customers and potentially also on a subsequent appointment with one of Pinpoint’s licensed clinics.