174387 Immunization information systems and healthcare systems interoperability

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Susan M. Salkowitz, MGA , Salkowitz Associates, LLC, Philadelphia, PA
Noam Arzt, PhD , HLN Consulting, LLC, San Diego, CA
Ruth Gubernick, MPH , Consultant-Public Health Program Development, Cherry Hill, NJ
Immunization Information Systems (IIS), originated in the 1990s are evolving from siloed registries to more integrated systems. The need for interaction with other public and private healthcare systems was central to their function, and spurred early standards adoption including CDC-endorsed functional standards1 and early development of an HL7 immunization message implementation guide2, now moving them into interoperability. With the continuing development of public health IT initiatives and the emergence of health information exchanges (HIE), IIS participation in and contributions to standards development and experience with collaborating with private practices and health plans in bi-directional records exchange is instructive to the policy and technical development of these new initiatives.3 IIS are emerging as the backbone of some HIEs due to their technical and policy maturity, as well as their successful deployment within public-private collaborations. IIS lessons learned can inform additional similar cases as RHIOs look for viable, existing implementations for their expansion.

This presentation will employ a graphic showing a high level view of healthcare systems interoperability from the IIS perspective, which will be used to describe the standards-based interconnection of IIS with public health systems like vital records, disease management and surveillance; external systems including links to provider EHR systems, health plans/payers, patients through PHR systems, and to emergency preparedness systems (SNS, mass vaccination/medication campaign support), links to integrated systems environments supported by master patient/client index implementations, data warehouses, and chronic care systems. Examplesfrom current deployments will be provided.

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify the contributions made by immunization information systems (IIS) to the healthcare systems interoperability standards effort 2. Understand the potential interconnection of IIS to other public and private healthcare information systems in a typical environment 3. Apply this understanding to relevant public and private healthcare systems projects

Keywords: Immunizations, Health Information Systems

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a consultant in health information systems for over 15 years, collaborating with HLN Consulting, LLC, with particular specialty in Immunization Information Systems, and am also a Board member (unpaid) of the American Immunization Registry Association and the Public Health Data Standards Consortium. This presentation is based on findings from IIS in several jurisdictions and the role of standards
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.