Immunization information systems and healthcare systems interoperability

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.