NEWS & TRENDS

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AIRA SUBMITS COMMENTS TO PROPOSED FERPA CHANGES

AIRA convened group of IIS stakeholders to draft a response to the latest proposed changes to the Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Our response was submitted this past Monday. If your jurisdiction is planning to responde, please feel free to use any of the language from the AIRA response. Deadline for comments is May 8, 2008.

Click here to download the proposed changes to FERPA document (.pdf).

Click here to download the AIRA response (.doc).

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AIRA CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AWARD PRESENTED AT NIC

The 2007 Center of Excellence Award was presented by AIRA President Sherry Riddick to Oregon ALERT IIS at the opening plenary of the 2008 National Immunization Conference. Accepting the award on behalf of Oregon was Lorraine Duncan, Oregon Immunization Program Manager, and Jenne McKibben, ALERT Program Specialist.

Sherry Riddick, Jenne McKibben, and Lorraine Duncan

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AIRA BOARD MEMBER APPOINTED TO SERVE ON ACIP

Dr. Mark Sawyer, AIRA Board member and Co-Chair of the AIRA Provider Participation Steering Committee, has been appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) starting in June 2008. Dr. Sawyer is currently the Principal Investigator and Executive Medical Director for the San Diego Immunization Partnership, a collaboration between the Immunization Program of San Diego County and the University of California, Division of Community Pediatrics. He is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego Medical School and Pediatric Infectious Disease Consultant for Kaiser Permanente San Diego.

Dr. Sawyer is a strong advocate for the role of IIS in public health. He is very involved in AIRA’s efforts to increase the data exchange capacity between IIS and EMR systems, believing that this is the surest way to increase provider and child participation in IIS. AIRA congratulates Dr. Sawyer and is confident that his tenure on ACIP will help advance the support of immunization information systems as valuable tools in keeping all people protected from vaccine preventable diseases.

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AIRA PRESENTS VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARDS

The American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) hosted a special Awards Reception on Tuesday evening, March 18, at the 2008 National Immunization Conference. At that time AIRA presented its annual Volunteer Service Awards to partners and volunteers that have worked above and beyond this past year to further the progress of Immunization Information Systems (IIS). This year's awardees are:

PARTNERSHIP AWARD

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

• David Lyalin, Northrop Grumman
• Indian Health Services (IHS)

VOLUNTEER SERVICE AWARDS

• Bridget Ahrens (VT)
• Emily Peterson-Stauffer (MN)

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