AIRA Weekly Update | January 15, 2025

In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, our office will be closed on Monday, January 20. We will resume normal hours on Tuesday, January 21.

- Your AIRA Team

TAKE ACTION

Register Today for the Upcoming AIRA Members and Partners Meeting

Please join us for the upcoming AIRA Members and Partners (M&P) meeting on Monday, February 3, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. AIRA M&P quarterly meetings provide important updates from AIRA and partner organizations and are a great way to get a high-level overview of the activities going on within the IIS and immunization community. Members and Partners meetings are held on Zoom.

The registration link will automatically take you to Zoom.

We hope you can join us. Recordings of past meetings can be found in the AIRA Repository.

AIRA’s 2024 Annual Report Is Now Available!

We’re excited to announce the release of AIRA’s 2024 Annual Report, celebrating a year of collaboration and progress in advancing IIS! Guided by our mission to ensure healthy communities, this report showcases the milestones achieved, the initiatives driving progress in IIS, and the invaluable partnerships that make it all possible.

Thank you for being an essential part of AIRA’s mission and success!

#AIRA2025 Reminders

Register for the AIRA 2025 National Meeting
Registration is open for the AIRA 2025 National Meeting, taking place at the Davenport Grand Hotel, 333 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard, Spokane, WA 99201. Located just steps from Riverfront Park and downtown attractions, this year’s venue offers a perfect backdrop for collaboration and learning. The AIRA room block is filling up quickly so be sure to reserve your hotel room soon!

The meeting kicks off a day early on Monday with a dynamic opening plenary, educational workshops, and a lively networking reception to set the tone for the week. Join us to explore the latest in IIS, reconnect with colleagues, and soak in Spokane’s scenic views and vibrant city charm.

We can’t wait to see you there! 🌲

Information Requests

AIRA members can submit and review information requests—a circulation of questions to and answers from the community. To submit an information request to the IIS community, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with “Information Request” in the subject line.

Information requests are viewable only by individual members and individuals affiliated with member and partner organizations. Recent information requests can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter in the AIRA Repository. Just log in to view these valuable resources! If you have any questions, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Information Request Raffle and Recognition Initiative

AIRA is dedicated to fostering the exchange of ideas and insights within the IIS community, and we want to ensure that your invaluable responses to information requests are both recognized and appreciated. As a reminder, we’ve launched a new initiative to honor those who provide meaningful responses to information requests. Anyone who provides a meaningful response* to an information request will be entered into a raffle to win a $25 gift card and will be recognized during the AIRA 2025 National Meeting awards ceremony. Additionally, anyone who has responded to an information request since the AIRA 2024 National Meeting will be included in the raffle and honored during the awards ceremony.

At AIRA, we are incredibly grateful for the knowledge and insights you share through participation in AIRA workgroups, committees, contributions to our newsletters, and, of course, your responses to information requests. Your contributions are indispensable to both AIRA and the IIS community.

*Only responses that address the information request will be eligible for entry into the raffle. Submissions made solely for the purpose of entering the raffle, without providing the requested information, will not be considered.

HOT TOPICS

AIRA Board Spotlight: Miriam Muscoplat

The Board Spotlight provides both AIRA staff and the IIS community the opportunity to learn a little about each AIRA Board member. This month, we are getting to know Miriam, Manager of the Minnesota Immunization Information Connection.

What was your favorite job in high school or college? Or, on the flip side, was there one that you were not fond of?

Most of my jobs in high school were lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons. I really enjoyed that overall, but I hated doing that work at a country club. Those kids were terrors.

What’s your favorite dessert?

Lemon bars with vanilla frozen custard

If you could eat only one cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Mexican. I could eat enchiladas all day every day.

!--

If you could instantly become an expert in any skill, what would it be?

Baking. I can’t make much beyond a simple chocolate chip cookie.

If you could invent something to make your life easier, what would it be?

An app that automatically syncs all of my kids’ school and activity calendars and then solves any issues with attendance and transportation.

What’s one thing on your bucket list that you haven’t done yet?

Travel to Greece

What’s one key takeaway you’ve gained from participating in an AIRA workgroup or committee?

There is so much knowledge in this community! Even though I am one of the more “seasoned” IIS managers (I’m not sure how that happened), I learn so much from others all the time.

Are there any new initiatives or projects your organization is currently working on that you’d be willing to share?

We are in the process of finding a vendor to build a new IIS. It’s both exciting and terrifying.

Data Viz Tip of the Month

Are you looking to enhance your Tableau skills or just beginning to explore the basics? Our Tableau User Group (TUG) co-chairs recommend the training sessions offered by “The Information Lab.” Their main Zoom events page features a range of upcoming Tableau trainings, including beginner 101-level courses and refresher sessions.

Exciting Update from AIRA’s Measurement and Improvement (M&I) Initiative!

In July 2023, AIRA, CDC, and the Measurement for Assessment and Certification Advisory Workgroup (MACAW) introduced two new measurable concepts to Testing and Discovery: Patient Matching–HL7 Submission and Patient Matching–HL7 Query. These concepts assess an IIS’s ability to accurately match and consolidate patient records, even with variations in critical fields like name and address, fostering better health data interoperability.

Building on this foundation, MACAW proposed 213 measures and tests in fall 2024, advancing these concepts toward the Assessment stage. The community played a crucial role in refining these measures, with:

A three-week comment period (November 4–November 26)
A town hall on November 18, attended by over 150 participants
37 comments submitted by 7 groups, reviewed in December

Thanks to this collaborative feedback process, MACAW has finalized the measures and tests, which are set for publication later this month. 🎉

Next Steps and Key Dates to Watch

January 31, 2025: Final measures and tests will be published in AIRA’s Repository. IIS participation settings in AART will be updated to align with their current Testing and Discovery settings.
February–March 2025: IIS programs can review and confirm their participation settings in AART.
March 31, 2025: Initial Assessment reports will be available in AART for participating IIS.

Stay tuned for further updates and reminders as these key milestones approach! For questions or support, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or submit a request form.

Important: Smarty License Upgrade in Effect!

As a reminder, AIRA’s Smarty license has been upgraded from the legacy Standard Edition to the Core Edition of the US Address Verification service. This upgrade to the Core Edition provides additional benefits, including enhanced matching capabilities and access to 20 million non-USPS addresses. Non-postal addresses are locations where people live and work, even where USPS does not deliver mail but where packages can be delivered.

While the license has been upgraded, not all Smarty users will be impacted.

Smarty users that currently specify the license value of “us-standard-cloud” in their HTTP requests MUST update it to “us-core-enterprise-cloud” to continue service.
Users that do not specify a license value in their API calls to Smarty do not need to make a change.

To access the enhanced functionality, users will need to update their HTTP requests or SDKs. For assistance, please contact Tesha Lucas at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Smarty will continue to support the legacy license until January 31, 2025. After that, API calls using the legacy license will result in a payment error.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Tesha Lucas.