Public Health immunization registries and the immunization ecosystem have evolved
over the past two decades to become significant population health data assets.
Clinical providers and pharmacists are reporting the immunizations given to
their patients to public health registries in 49 states and all territories,
creating consolidated immunization event patient records.Most of these immunization events are reported through the provider’s
Electronic Health Record system (EHR), Pharmacy Management System (PMS), online,
or through data uploads. Meaningful Use and health data standards (HL7) became
the drivers that accelerated reporting to immunization registries and
significantly improved the quantity and quality of the data. The infrastructure
supporting the Immunization Ecosystem (IE) has enabled real-time compliance
reporting and, more importantly, real-time patient queries. The provider
community now has online access to a patient’s immunization history in
over three quarters of the states, and growing. This access includes a forecast
of the patient’s immunization gaps provided by public health decision
support tools based upon the most recent ACIP recommendations. This is creating
an opportunity for the provider and the patient to work together to reduce their
risk of suffering a vaccine-preventable disease. This IE and the data in an
Immunization Information System (IIS) are especially useful as pharmacies expand
their immunization practices and create opportunities to reduce the adolescent
and adult immunization gaps.In a few states, this provider-public health ecosystem has begun to extend to
individuals by allowing them to access the IIS online through the use of MyIR.
MyIR provides them with the electronic version of their immunization
"yellow cards," recommendations for immunizations due, and the ability
to print official certificates. This emerging consumer engagement creates
opportunities to empower individuals to be more proactive in their
family’s health care.This paper builds upon early experiments to empower individuals in this ecosystem
by leveraging the value of these public health data assets and trusted
communications, illustrating the possibilities for engaging consumers to support
reducing the impact of emerging diseases, outbreaks and the next pandemic. This
paper will suggest the value of the IE and the role individuals can play within
their own social networks to advance public health efforts to manage disease
events. In turn, this social mission would encourage consumers to be more
proactive in managing their own healthcare.