Announcing the Launch of an Immunization Collaborative

Floyd Eisenberg, MD, MPH, FACP, Chickasaw Health Consulting (CHC) Vice President, Standards and Quality, joined Tom Leary, MALA, CAE, FHIMSS, Vice President Government Relations of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and Rebecca Coyle, MS, Executive Director of the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA), in announcing the launch of an Immunization Collaborative at the HIMSS 2019 meeting in Orlando, Florida on February 14, 2019. The Collaborative is a representative body to achieve consensus among key stakeholders on common issues and recommend solutions to improve immunization interoperability among clinicians and immunization registries. The announcement created significant interest among state government officials, EHR vendors, providers and international participants. The Collaborative builds on the work of the HIMSS Immunization Integration Program (IIP) that CHC manages under contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The IIP program has thus far recognized five clinical software vendors and published immunization capabilities and implementation guidance. Specific discussions at HIMSS 2019 include the launch presentation, audience participation sessions and immunization workflow demonstrations in the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase showing clinical workflow among several electronic health record (EHR) products, an immunization forecasting engine and immunization registry. We are pleased with the excitement generated at HIMSS 2019, and we look forward to even greater participation in the program through the Immunization Collaborative!