Establishing and maintaining the National Vaccination Register in Finland

Abstract

Computerised, population-based vaccination registers are valuable tools for assessing the vaccine uptake and impact in populations. However, reliable impact assessment is only possible if the data quality can be reviewed and monitored continuously. This report describes the establishment and maintenance of the National Vaccination Register (NVR) in Finland. Currently, the NVR covers nationwide records of vaccinations given within the frame of the National Vaccination Programme since 2009. All vaccinations registered in the NVR contain a record of the personal identity code, the administered vaccine, and the date of vaccination. The vaccine lot number is the key component for recording and identifying vaccinations, because of its broad availability across patient information systems and its importance in vaccine safety monitoring. Vaccination records are accumulated and updated daily into the NVR, and their completeness is monitored monthly to assess deficiencies in data entry and data collection. Additionally, an alert system reports unexpected changes in data accumulation prompting the validation of observed changes in vaccination coverage. The presented process documentation may serve as basis to improve the design and quality of other vaccination or healthcare registers and aims to inspire the set-up of vaccination registers in those countries which still do not have one.

Long-term impact of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination on invasive pneumococcal disease among children in Finland

“…37 Moreover, influenza vaccinations that started in fall 2007 for children 6 to 36 months of age, may have prevented some IPD cases. However, the vaccination coverage was 40% in 2007 to 2009 but less than 20% during the PCV10 program 14 , which might result in a conservative estimate of the PCV10 impact.…”

“…In the birth cohort of 2012, the uptake of at least one dose of PCV10 was estimated at 94% based on data in the National Vaccination Register. 14 In 2009-2011, the effectiveness of PCV10 against vaccine-type IPD was investigated in a nationwide FinIP vaccine trial, in which over 30,000 children born 2008 through May 2010 were vaccinated with PCV10. 15 During the FinIP trial, the PCV10 vaccine coverage varied regionally from 0 to 60%.…”

Cohort study design for estimating the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccines in real time based on register data: The Finnish example

“…The National Vaccination Register provides the vaccination information [9], i.e. vaccination records characterised by the vaccinee’s personal identity code, the administered vaccine, including the batch number and trade name, and the date of vaccination (Table I).…”

Using Routine Data Sources to Feed an Immunization Information System for High-Risk Patients—A Pilot Study

“…Immunization information system can help immunization programs identify populations at high risk for vaccine-preventable diseases ( 13 ); they form a fundamental platform either when data are collected within the same information system as morbidity data or, most importantly, by easily linking individual-level vaccination records with other medical records and health outcome databases ( 14 ). Since chronically ill patients need to be in contact with multiple medical primary and specialist health services for continuing care and disease management ( 15 ), they leave “trails” in several healthcare and administrative databases.…”

“…Since chronically ill patients need to be in contact with multiple medical primary and specialist health services for continuing care and disease management ( 15 ), they leave “trails” in several healthcare and administrative databases. Integration of certain information included in these data systems within the IIS can bring additional strengths in terms of studying comprehensively the impact of vaccines—both effectiveness and safety—as well as in formulating the best possible vaccination programs for high-risk populations ( 14 ). Given these features and their potential, IIS may be considered the most useful tool to improve vaccination coverage also among people with chronic illnesses.…”