|
|
“A body in motion tends to stay in motion…” – Sir Isaac Newton
The month of May was set in motion by the AIRA 2024 National Meeting, and there are no signs of an outside force slowing us down. During the last couple weeks of May, AIRA staff, including myself, have traveled all over to attend countless meetings.
Nathan Bunker, Senior Technical Standards Architect at AIRA, traveled to Brussels, Belgium, to represent our organization at the May 13–14 kickoff meeting for the European Vaccination Beyond Covid-19 (EUVABECO) project, part of the EU's EU4Health initiative. Over the next three years, this project will explore topics like pandemic vaccination modeling and creating a new electronic vaccination card (EVC). As a new member of the EUVABECO External Advisory Board, Nathan's participation helped bridge US and European efforts. His ongoing involvement will help to both provide US perspectives and share best practices and lessons learned to improve US vaccination strategies.
|
|
|
During the routine JPHIT meeting, held on May 15, participating organizations provided updates on their work. Of note, the CDC Office of Public Health Data Standards and Technology (OPHDST) provided an overview of the Public Health Data Strategy milestones to date and noted that the core Data Use Agreement is still a work in progress. Additionally, work by several of the JPHIT members, including the Public Heath Informatics Institute (PHII) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), are striving to provide public health related data-modernization stories. If you haven’t had a chance to check these out yet, I encourage you to take a minute to view the stories and videos. Please note that these stories are focused on public health as a whole, not immunization-specific stories.
May 20–22, Alexandra Hayes, Deputy Director of Standards and Analytics at AIRA, attended the annual meeting for vital records and health statistics jurisdictions, coordinated and hosted by their member organization, NAPHSIS (National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems). During this two-and-a-half-day meeting in Detroit, more than 250 jurisdiction representatives and key partners, such as CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, shared and discussed updates on initiatives associated with modernizing vital records management and data sharing as well as activities to expand access to vital records for digital identity management, data security, and privacy. AIRA and NAPHSIS are committed to strengthening the collaboration among vital records and immunization communities and will continue to explore opportunities for synergy.
And lastly, on May 20, we hosted a Discovery Session recapping the AIRA 2024 National Meeting. Thank you to Hannah Forsythe and Mary Woinarowicz for presenting during this session and to all the attendees for their participation.
Looking Ahead:
- Join us on June 24 for our next Discovery Session where we will hear about efforts to advance and track emerging standards, such as FHIR, in immunization information systems.
- The 2024 IIS Leadership Workshop, conducted by PHII in association with AIRA and CDC, is taking place in person June 3–7, and meeting highlights will be available in the coming weeks.
- AIRA will be presenting at the National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting June 10–14.
- On June 24, the Maternal Immunization Task Force (ACOG) meeting will take place, and meeting notes will be shared as they become available.
Wishing everyone a wonderful June!
Rebecca Coyle, MSEd
Executive Director
|
|
|
A Message from Our Partners
|
|
Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI) Cohort 2 RFA Released June 3
In February 2024, the CDC Foundation was awarded federal funds from CDC, through the Association of Public Health Laboratories, to launch the Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI). The goal of WAI is to strengthen public health agencies and authorities’ (PHA) capacity to deliver information system improvements that are of top priority to each PHA by adding technology and data experts to their teams.
The application for Cohort 2 of the Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI) was posted on Monday, June 3, on https://www.cdcfoundation.org/request-for-proposals, and submissions are due on Friday, June 28 by 11:59 p.m. PST. The Cohort 2 application will be similar to the Cohort 1 application, except as noted below.
The Cohort 2 application differs from the Cohort 1 application in the following ways:
- Unlike Cohort 1, Cohort 2 will not require that applicants already have planned systems improvement project(s) on which the WAI placements would work. WAI placements might be assigned to a more general role or might be assigned to develop a project. Applications from agencies with planned systems improvement project(s) are welcome in Cohort 2 but having planned systems improvement project(s) will not be required.
- Unlike Cohort 1, Cohort 2 will not require that applicant have already have an individual overseeing information systems improvement to direct the work of the WAI placements. Cohort 2 applicants may request that such an individual be recruited as one of their requested WAI placements. Applications from agencies with an existing individual overseeing information systems improvement are welcome in Cohort 2, but having an existing individual overseeing information systems improvement will not be required.
- For clarity, specific questions in the Cohort 2 application may vary from those in the Cohort 1 application and some questions may be added. The general content requested from PHAs will be similar, along with the content of the required letter of support.
Cohort 1 applicants selected for Cohort 1 are not eligible to apply for Cohort 2. Cohort 1 applicants that were not selected are still eligible and encouraged to apply to Cohort 2.
|
Don’t Miss AIRA’s Next Discovery Session: Emerging Standards
|
|
The next AIRA Discovery Session is scheduled for Monday, June 24, 2024, from 4 to 5 p.m. ET. Join us to hear about efforts toward advancing and tracking emerging standards, such as FHIR, in immunization information systems. Presenters will navigate emerging standards as they support public health data modernization initiatives and provide structured data specifications to meet the needs of public health programs and their partners.
There will be time for questions and answers at the end of the webinar.
|
Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email which contains links to add the meeting to your calendar.
If you’re unable to attend, this session will be recorded and available in the AIRA Repository.
|
Join the IIS Data Analyst Network (IDAN)!
|
|
Have you ever wanted to touch base with another data analyst about a project you’re working on? Do you have questions you’d like to discuss with someone else with immunization data experience? Do you wonder how other immunization staff are analyzing data that’s similar to yours?
Join the IIS Data Analyst Network (IDAN) and meet your match!
- What is the IIS Data Analyst Network: IDAN is a program in which AIRA pairs IIS data analysts across the community to provide professional peer support.
- Who can join: Anyone who extracts, analyzes, interprets, visualizes, reports out, or interacts with IIS data is welcome.
- How to join: Simply register here and tell us more about yourself. AIRA will pair you and email you when we have found you a match.
- What happens after I’m paired: AIRA will hold quarterly virtual meetups for IDAN participants. Between meetings, you will receive topics and prompts to facilitate connecting with your match. You can also log in and chat in an IDAN-exclusive space within AIRA’s online forum for data analysts.
Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with questions.
|
|
|
New M&I Reports Available for Q1 2024: January 1–March 31
|
|
Immunization information systems (IIS) can access their individual Measurement and Improvement (M&I) Testing and Discovery, Assessment, and Validation reports for the first quarter of 2024 (January–March) in the Aggregate Analysis Reporting Tool (AART). Jurisdictions interested in improving their M&I results are invited to submit a technical assistance request to get the conversation started with a member of AIRA’s Standards and Analytics team.
Additionally, the M&I Aggregate Assessment and Validation Summary data reports for the M&I content areas Transport, Submission/Acknowledgment, Query/Response, Data Quality Incoming/Ongoing, and Clinical Decision Support have also been updated for the IIS community and can be accessed in AIRA’s repository.
To highlight key impacts and trends from the 12-15 M&I reports published quarterly, AIRA collaborated with the Measurement for Assessment and Certification Advisory Workgroup (MACAW) to produce a new highlights summary for the broader IIS community. This one-page summary overview is a helpful, at-a-glance insight into the successes and progress demonstrated by the IIS community during the reporting period. The summary can be accessed in AIRA’s repository.
|
Provider Organization Onboarding for IIS Spring 2024 Course Recap
|
|
AIRA’s Onboarding Shared Services (OSS) team recently completed another successful iteration of the Provider Organization Onboarding for IIS course. This course was created to help build or enhance participants’ capacity to conduct onboarding in alignment with best practices.
One-hundred and eight participants from 29 jurisdictions joined us for the six-week series, spanning from March 14 to April 18, 2024. Eighty-eight percent of participants who completed the course evaluation either agreed or strongly agreed the course was high-quality and would recommend this course to a colleague.
For those who missed out on the live training, fear not! We have other resources to enrich your onboarding knowledge. We invite you to explore our Onboarding Templates web page that contains all seven onboarding templates. Our course evaluation shows that over 60% of respondents are currently using six of these templates in their respective jurisdictions.
Need help with implementing onboarding best practices? We also offer technical assistance with implementing the templates and a best practice onboarding process. Submit a technical assistance request!
A big thank-you to all our participants for your dedication to this course!
|
|
|
|
|
AIRA Employment Opportunities
There are no current opportunities at this time.
Opportunities for Independent Contractors
To be notified of future contracting opportunities, please sign up here.
|
|
|
|
|
Check out the AIRA Calendar for upcoming events!
|
Stay up to date on upcoming AIRA committees, board meetings, webinars, events, and more.
|
|
|
|
|
Eye think you should read this!
|
|
|
American Immunization Registry Association
1717 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Suite 1025
Washington, DC 20006
|
© Copyright 2023, American Immunization Registry Association
|
|
|
|
|
