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President's Column
What a privilege to serve as AIRA's President during such an exciting time for the organization and for registries in general! As AIRA members, we can participate in critical changes and exciting opportunities in the months ahead:
- developing AIRA's Knowledge Management initiative as a way to share best practices, anecdotes, and materials;
- the fruition of the PROW and MCO Data Exchange projects;
- the continued and outstanding work of AIRA's committees, including Emergency Preparedness, Education, and the Technical Committee;
- the ongoing collaboration with CIRSET on the HL7 immunization data exchange and other standards;
- working with CDC on successful implementation of a voluntary registry certification program;
- working with Every Child By Two and the Public Health Informatics Institute on a variety of policy and integration initiatives;
- working with CDC on merging the Registry Support Branch with the Immunization Services Division, supporting the Branch's informatics and consultant teams during the transition;
- helping to shape registry's role in enhanced vaccine management and accountability efforts, hopefully also leading to a new funding source from VFC;
- encouraging the central role of registries in responding to public health emergencies; and
- the increasing emphasis and progress on integration.
The success of every organization gets down to the people that are in it, and AIRA is certainly blessed with wonderfully knowledgeable and committed members. This is a great year to get more involved in the exciting work of AIRA. If you'd like to contribute your expertise, please send me an e-mail (bill.brand@state.mn.us) or visit our web page, www.immregistries.org to learn about our many exciting projects. One will certainly be a good fit for you!
Lastly, I want to acknowledge the enduring contributions of our Immediate Past-President, Amy Metroka. I so appreciate and admire — and will no doubt continue to rely upon — her keen mind, passion for registries, and unflagging spirit. On behalf of all the AIRA members, especially for those who could not attend the Annual Meeting at the Immunization Registry Conference, our heartfelt thanks to you, Amy, for your all you've done to help AIRA grow into the effective organization that it is!