Immunization registries in the United States: implications for the practice of public health in a changing health care system.

Although immunization rates among children are rising across the country- rates in inner-city areas have remained at approximately 50%-60%- lations is caused in part by the lack of timely and accurate child-specific immunization information for providers and parents. Immunization registries are a new tool in health care that can be used to address these and other barriers to effective immunization delivery. Moreover- immunization registries have the potential to help health care officials track and improve delivery for a broad range of important child health services. An immunization registry is a computerized database of information on children (usually preschool-age children) in a defined population (e.g. those enrolled in a health maintenance organization or living in a specific geographic area)- which is used to record and track all immunizations received by each chi