Immunization Management – It Starts With the Clinical Requirements

Over the last several years, there has been much work initiated across the country to develop electronic systems that support communicable disease management. To that end, Immunization Information Systems (IIS) have been developed to provide a means of tracking immunization delivery in the provinces and territories. In order to fully use these systems, however; the ability to communicate with Point of Service(POS) systems used by front line clinicians, must be in place. Establishing the capability of Immunization Interoperability, (enabling individual clinician POS systems to communicate with the IIS), is critical. Immunization Interoperability will provide clinicians with the ability to be informed on patient immunization status by viewing immunizations administered by other healthcare providers as well as those they independently submit to the central repository for a patient. All of this valuable information is available and accessible via individual POS systems.

With the goal of the accessible information described above, a collective group of clinicians administering immunizations (Nurses, Physicians, Pharmacists), as well as vendor representatives from across the country convened in a workshop last month to develop a set of clinical requirements to inform Immunization Interoperability development and implementation. This set of clinical requirements is available for use and may inform current and/or future discussions for your respective projects.

To view the published clinical requirements, please logon to InfoCentral in the Public Health Surveillance Community.