The World Health Organization and Biostat Global Consulting will release an updated version of the Vaccination Coverage Quality Indicators (VCQI) software in January of 2021.  There have been two recent video conferences to discuss features that will be updated and to solicit input on what kinds of documentation and supporting materials would be helpful for VCQI users.  Please find below some brief meeting notes, as well as links to the meeting slides and video.  When the software and documentation are updated, we will post announcements in this User's Group. 

Please send feedback to [email protected] and [email protected].

Notes after December 08, 2020 meeting:

This is a final brief note of thanks to those of you who tuned in to one (or both) of our VCQI documentation sessions.  Thank you for the positive responses and constructive suggestions.  I’ll note a few things here and provide links below to: a) the slides, b) the recording, and c) the VCQI resources website, which we will update over time.  If you have additional suggestions for case studies or VCQI indicators or capabilities, please feel free to write to me or to Carolina Danovaro (cc’d here).

 New items from today’s discussion:

1. WHO is looking at tetanus elimination in some of the most difficult countries and may suggest additional indicators to be incorporated into VCQI. 
2. Gavi would like to see case studies of analyzing post-campaign coverage surveys (PCCS), especially estimating the number of zero-dose children who were vaccinated and the number who remain zero-dose after the campaign. These resources are in preparation as part of the forthcoming updates.  [I noted that there is a manuscript in press for Vaccine where Felicity and Carolina and I enumerate the challenges to using PCCSs to find zero-dose children.  If you want to be notified when that manuscript is published, send an e-mail to me or Felicity or Carolina.]
3. WHO Pakistan would like to see a case study of how to use VCQI to summarize PCCS reasons for non-vaccination.  We will be sure to include that in this next update.  It is already possible; we simply need to make it clear HOW to do it. 
4. There is interest in case studies showing how to make survey data compatible with VCQI – this is already an area of focus for the forthcoming update.  Please comment on the new materials when they are released.
5. There is interest in using VCQI to analyze HPV vaccine coverage.  We would be happy to discuss whether any new indicators are needed or whether we simply need to provide a case study showing how to use the current indicators for that analysis.  I’ll liaise with Carolina and Dove and John Wagai to follow up.  Anyone else who is interested can let me know.
6. There is interest in a case study of an advanced analysis that explores the possible range of coverage when we know that a documentable portion of a country was excluded from an SIA or excluded from the survey.  How would national results vary if none of the kids in the excluded areas were vaccinated?  Or if coverage there was XX% of coverage in neighboring areas that were unaffected by conflict?

 As I said today, we value your time and appreciate hearing your ideas.  Feel free to send additional questions or ideas to myself and to Carolina Danovaro at WHO HQ.

 Helpful links:

1. Today’s slides
2. Video of today’s 60 minute presentation & discussion
3. The so-called white paper that we mentioned in the discussion:
   Harmonizing vaccination coverage measures in household surveys: A primer. WHO; 2019.
4. The VCQI Resources website (which will be updated with refreshed and new material in the coming ~2 months) 
   We will announce the updates using the Technet-21 VCQI User’s Group. You can follow the link on the VCQI Resources website to join the user’s group.

Warm regards,

-Dale

on behalf of Carolina Danovaro at WHO and the team here at Biostat Global Consulting

Notes after December 03, 2020 meeting:

Dear All,

I am sending a belated “Thank you” to those of you who joined us for the VCQI Documentation discussion last week.  Here is my brief recap of points that were made last week.

Questions:

1. Requiring analysts to have a Stata license poses a barrier of cost; would it be possible to port VCQI to a platform like R Shiny that all users could simply access with a web browser where the sophisticated software is on a server?  Short answer: Yes.  It would be a substantial job, but it’s a good idea that would clear the barrier of cost and allow centralized maintenance and improvements.

2. Could VCQI be used to look at vaccination in the second year of life (2YL)?  Short answer: Yes.  We don’t have a case study to share, but it currently works seamlessly to analyze a cohort aged 24-35m just as well as the younger 12-3m cohort.

3. Could VCQI be used for equity analyses?  Short answer: Yes. VCQI allows stratification by demographic variables as well as geographic strata; all the pieces are there to do it now. 

Comments:

1. It will be helpful if VCQI table and figure headings and labels can be translated into other languages (in addition to translating the VCQI documentation). 

2. There has been some discussion about developing a guide for survey report-writing committees concerning which VCQI output to look at first and how to navigate the several Excel spreadsheet tables and many dozens of figures that VCQI produces.  That would still be helpful.

3. Finally, additional material to help people interpret inchworm plots – which are how VCQI portrays estimated weighted proportions – would be helpful.

Let me know if you have additional input.

-Dale

DALE RHODA

Statistician & President | Biostat Global Consulting

330 Blandford Drive, Worthington, OH 43085 USA

[email protected]   

www.biostatglobal.com 

Phone or Whatsapp:+1 (614) 499-2351