The Texas Children's Hospital immunization forecaster: conceptualization to implementation.

OBJECTIVES: Immunization forecasting systems evaluate patient vaccination histories and recommend the dates and vaccines that should be administered. We described the conceptualization- development- implementation- and distribution of a novel immunization forecaster- the Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) Forecaster. METHODS: In 2007- TCH convened an internal expert team that included a pediatrician- immunization nurse- software engineer- and immunization subject matter experts to develop the TCH Forecaster. Our team developed the design of the model- wrote the software- populated the Excel tables- integrated the software- and tested the Forecaster. We created a table of rules that contained each vaccine's recommendations- minimum ages and intervals- and contraindications- which served as the basis for the TCH Forecaster. RESULTS: We created 15 vaccine tables that incorporated 79 unique dose states and 84 vaccine types to operationalize the entire United States recommended immunization schedule. The TCH Forecast