7 minute read

OCTOBER 2, 2024

September Highlights

On September 11, I attended the first Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) Emerging Issues Summit in Bethesda, Maryland. This was an exciting new forum to hear from stakeholders across the immunization landscape, including program managers, on some of the key issues impacting immunization programs. The following two days (September 12–13) I attended the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) meeting in Washington, D.C., and provided a brief update on our various offerings and trainings, our involvement in gathering community comments on the published ASTP/ONC’s HTI-2 Rule, the AIRA 2025 National Meeting, and engaged in meaningful conversation.

Throughout the month, AIRA has shared multiple updates regarding the AIRA 2025 National Meeting, including the opening of the Call for Abstracts and an opportunity to suggest a keynote speaker and keynote topic.

To close out the month of September, the September SnapShots was published featuring informative articles packed with valuable insights for the IIS community. Lastly, AIRA staff participated in the HL7 International Working Group Meeting (WGM) in Atlanta, where key discussions focused on global standards and the future of health interoperability standards that will impact IIS work. Several important topics were covered that have direct relevance to IIS programs:

• HTI-2 and TEFCA are being developed and deployed to bridge health information silos and promote real-time data exchange, with public health systems being part of this ecosystem. HTI-2 anchors TEFCA to a floor of nationwide shared services for network interoperability.
• FHIR is growing internationally, especially through the International Patient Summary (IPS) project, which aims to improve cross-border health data sharing.
• New software tools are being created to help IIS integrate more easily into these national networks while continuing to use HL7 v2 standards.
• AI is being explored in an assistive capacity, to address challenges like reducing the documentation burden on healthcare providers and draw insights from health data.
• Emerging Standards: Nathan Bunker (AIRA) and Faisal Reza (CDC) presented on the continued maturity of HL7 v2 in IIS and how FHIR will support new innovations without replacing the existing standard.
• AIRA engaged with HL7 experts to discuss improvements to the ACK message to enhance IIS data quality.

These discussions and projects will help position IIS to better integrate with national and international systems while continuing to improve data quality and efficiency. 

October Highlights

• On October 1, a virtual celebration was held to mark 30 years of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program.
• The STC Thought Leadership Consortium is being held October 1–3 in Phoenix, Arizona.
• Submissions for consideration in the December SnapShots are due October 14. 
• Concluding the month of October, the ACIP meeting will take place October 23–24.

Wishing you a season full of crisp air, warm moments, and vibrant opportunities!

Rebecca Coyle, MSEd

Executive Director

Suggest a Keynote Speaker or Topic for #AIRA2025

Do you know of an inspiring keynote speaker or a thought-provoking topic perfect for a keynote that would resonate with the IIS community? If so, we’d love to hear your suggestions!

There is only one week left to submit your suggestions for a keynote speaker or a thought-provoking keynote topic. To share your recommendations, please take a few minutes to complete this short survey by Wednesday, October 9. And keep in mind that while we’d love to host big-name celebrities, our budget is better suited for speakers who are impactful, engaging, and accessible even if they’re not verified on social media!

Thank you for helping us create an inspiring and meaningful experience at #AIRA2025. We can’t wait to see what ideas you bring to the table!

#AIRA2025 Call for Abstracts Now Open!

The AIRA National Meeting provides a platform to showcase the progress happening throughout the IIS community. Submit your abstract to be considered for a standard breakout presentation or to lead a group discussion. The Call for Abstracts will close on Sunday, November 17, 11:59 p.m. ET, and speaker notifications will go out on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. We invite you to share your insights and help shape the future of IIS!

More guidance regarding the abstract submission process can be found by reviewing the Call for Abstracts Overview Flyer or visiting www.airanationalmeeting.org. 

Please join us for the upcoming AIRA Members and Partners (M&P) meeting on Monday, October 21, 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.

Join us for the next AIRA Discovery Session on Monday, October 28, 2024, from 4 to 5 p.m. ET to hear about lessons learned on immunization data exchange after 20 million immunization messages were exchanged. The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been exchanging, tracking, and analyzing immunization messages to understand the reasons behind data exchange successes and failures. This presentation will share VA’s findings and will allow the audience to hear from the Ohio IIS, which has the highest data exchange success rate with VA. There will be time for questions and answers at the end of the webinar.

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with links to add the meeting to your calendar.

If you’re unable to attend, this session will be recorded and available in the AIRA Repository. We hope you’ll join us on October 28!

The September edition of SnapShots has arrived. This quarter, we feature Heather Roth’s final article as AIRA Board President, insights on how Indiana transformed their M&I after an AIRA-led AART clinic and through collaboration with STChealth, a look at parental vaccination acceptance as a predictor of childhood vaccination, and tools to align your IIS with the Data Modernization Initiative. Also, don’t miss this edition's Tech Corner, where Nathan Bunker discusses emerging standards and the future of interoperability.

Our next edition of SnapShots will be published in December, and we would love to feature your work! If you or a colleague are working on something you would like to share with the IIS community, submit an article for consideration by Monday, October 14. To submit an article for consideration, simply email your content to Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. or Gabriella Wagoner at Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.. Remember, to be considered for inclusion, your content must relate to a jurisdiction or have a jurisdiction as a co-author.

Access to health information is an important tool for Public Health Authorities (PHAs) and their delegates to support core public health services including, but not limited to, assessing and monitoring population health, and investigating, diagnosing, and addressing health hazards and root causes. Use cases described in the recently released Public Health Exchange Purpose Implementation SOP allow PHAs to identify disease trends, track and monitor outbreaks, and prevent and control future outbreaks.

Join experts from the TEFCA Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC) on October 11, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET for an informative webinar, where we’ll cover the essentials of TEFCA Exchange and dive into the details of the Public Health Exchange Purpose Implementation SOP.

What you will learn:

• How TEFCA Exchange benefits both reporting providers and public health agencies by establishing a single set of rules and mechanisms for TEFCA Exchange
• In-depth insights into Electronic Case Reporting (eCR) and Electronic Laboratory Reporting (eLR)

This webinar will also offer a valuable opportunity for input from the public health community.

Since the beginning of August, AIRA has been working to gather and consolidate comments across IIS to address the ASTP/ONC (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Patient Engagement, Information Sharing, and Public Health Interoperability Proposed Rule, also called HTI-2, in the Federal Register that was published on Monday, August 5. As September comes to a close, we are approaching the due date for comments. If you would still like to submit comments or view the proposed rule, you can do so by clicking here. All comments are due to ASTP/ONC by Friday, October 4.

Thank you for your engagement and collaboration. If you have questions about the proposed rule or the process, please reach out to Mary Beth Kurilo at Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser..

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 Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. with “Information Request” in the subject line.

Open Information Requests

• The Nevada State Immunization Program is looking for information (policies, guidance, lessons learned, etc.) on implementing a VFC vaccine “replacement model” with one or more enrolled locations. Specifically, they would like to learn how other jurisdictions manage this type of model in the IIS. How are clinics that use the replacement model instructed to document funding source and eligibility? Are manual (user interface) reporters handled any differently than HL7 (electronic submission) reporters? What challenges has the replacement model presented for IIS accountability? For reconciliation? Ordering? Have any jurisdictions enrolled a site that uses the replacement model for only one type of vaccine (such as HepB) but that administers other VFC vaccines in the traditional model?

   

  If you are willing to share, please reach out to Amanda Harris at Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. and copy Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. by October 9, and don’t forget to include your contact information for follow-up.

   

• The Louisiana Department of Health is seeking information regarding HEDIS reporting service charges. They are currently charging 50 cents per record for their HEDIS reporting service. Because of the increasing cost in maintaining this effort, they are considering increasing the price to $1 per record. Before making that decision, they would like to know what other jurisdictions are charging for this service.

   

  If you are willing to share, please reach out to Quan Le at Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. and copy Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. by October 9, and don’t forget to include your contact information for follow-up.

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 Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser..

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Technical Advisory Bulletins (TABs) are intended to provide additional clarity on national specifications to support the interoperability of immunization information between systems. These documents build on and further clarify specifications in the HL7 v2.5.1 Implementation Guide (IG) for Immunization Messaging, Release 1.5 and Addendum, October 2018. Once published, IIS can enhance their HL7 interfaces to align with TABs.

To this end, AIRA’s Measurement and Improvement (M&I) program is updating specific test measures to align with published TAB expectations. These updates will expand the current criteria to ensure those IIS that implement these new TAB expectations pass M&I testing measures.

Starting in Q4 2024, which spans October through December, the following measures are being updated to expand the criteria for IIS to pass.

• Query Measure 5: Based on the Query Response Flexibility TAB, Measure 5 will be updated to allow for a Z31 (list of patients) as a valid response to a Request Evaluated Immunization History and Forecast (Z44 QBP).
• Data Quality Incoming/Ongoing (DQI) Measure 7 and 8: Based on the Additional “Unknown” Race and Ethnicity TAB, Measure 7 (Race) and 8 (Ethnicity) will be updated to allow for a value of “UNK” (Unknown) as a valid default value in an RSP when a patient does not have a valid race or ethnicity on file.

AIRA will also update published measures and tests documents for corresponding content areas, such as Query/Response and DQI. Please submit any questions you have to Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. or fill out the Technical Assistance Request form for assistance.

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