Immunisation Information Systems: Making interoperable data systems for vaccination a reality in Europe building on the COVID experience

The latest work from the Digital Health Society and I~HD is a  Round Table on “Immunisation Information Systems: Making interoperable data systems for vaccination a reality in Europe building on the COVID experience”. Round Table 5 included 28 multi stakeholders in vaccine research and development, immunisation programmes, public health, clinicians , vaccine registries, immunisation information systems, health informatics and policy setting. 

This report presents the findings of two multi-stakeholder Round Table meetings that explored, and have proposed recommendations for how Europe and its Member States can advance effectively and rapidly towards having the most functionally suitable and interoperable information systems used to run, document, and evaluate immunisation programmes.

This report is a consensus of 28 invited expert stakeholders in vaccine research and development, immunisation programmes, public health, clinicians, vaccination registries, immunisation information systems, health informatics and policy-setting. The Round Tables were held on 23rd June and 7th July 2022.

The two Round Tables were scoped and convened by the Digital Health Society (DHS) and The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD) neutrally and independently from the event sponsors Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and MSD. This topic is part of a rolling programme of deeper dives drawing on 7 Calls to Action on Health Data Ecosystems that were published in 2020, taking an immunisation-specific focus in particular on the three Calls to Action on the right:

The stimulus for this topic has to some extent been the COVID-19 pandemic which has shown the value of real time interoperable data systems across the EU in the field of healthcare, and immunisation in particular, including the value of cross-border cooperation on the EU Digital COVID Certificate. A recent investigation by OpenSky commissioned by MSD, a summary of which is here, has highlighted the variation in the maturity and use made of immunisation information systems and electronic vaccination registries across Europe, and the prevention value gained from the mature country examples.

The forthcoming European Health Data Space is another catalyst for European
action in this area, providing the opportunity to collate and enable permitted crossborder access to citizen-level immunisation information and aggregated-data intelligence on coverage, outbreaks and the effectiveness of prevention and containment strategies.

The recommendations in this report cover the spectrum from strengthening immunisation information and vaccination programme delivery to individuals through to national and multi-national co-operation on outbreak intelligence sharing and coordinated action.

If you want to hear more about Immunisation Information Systems and the Round Table 5 Report, don’t miss our virtual online webinar on Tuesday 10th January 2023 at 10 to 11 am CET.