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In This Issue...
- Nominations for the AIRA Board of Directors Are Now Open!
- #AIRA2018 Full Meeting Program Now Available
- Seventeen IIS Have Signed Up for an AART Clinic – Is Your IIS One of Them?
- Transport, Submission/Acknowledgement, and Query/Response Validation Reports
- Open for Comment: CMS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
- AIRA Welcomes a New Executive Assistant
- National Immunization Awareness Month
- Recent Information Requests Added to the AIRA Repository
- Steering Committee Updates: July Recap
Check Out the AIRA Events Calendar for Upcoming...
Nominations for the AIRA Board of Directors Are Now Open!
AIRA’s board of directors provides national leadership for current and future immunization information system (IIS) activities. Serving on the board is a four- to five-hour per month commitment and an amazing opportunity to promote IIS. Nominations are due Sunday, August 19.
Click here to nominate yourself or a fellow IIS colleague!
More information about eligibility and open positions is available here.
#AIRA2018 Full Meeting Program Now Available
This year's meeting theme is Advancing IIS Together. Attendees will have an opportunity to strengthen long-term partnerships, develop new relationships, gain professional education and training, and learn from one another. View the full meeting program and register today!
Seventeen IIS Have Signed Up for an AART Clinic – Is Your IIS One of Them?
If your IIS team hasn’t signed up yet, now is your chance to schedule an appointment with an AIRA technical analyst at the upcoming AIRA National Meeting in Salt Lake City. Receive a one-on-one check-in with an AIRA technical analyst where you can learn more about how to improve your HL7 interface or transport method. Your check-in will be specific to your IIS. Bring your burning questions about AART —whether they are about how to make the best use of your test results or how to manage participation and sharing settings.
Please coordinate with your IIS team colleagues to choose an appointment time that works best for all of you, as one session will be offered for each IIS. Feel free to include your IIS vendor in your appointment. Clinic appointments will be set for 15- or 30-minute time slots. You can sign up here.
Please email questions to Tracy Little.
Transport, Submission/Acknowledgement, and Query/Response Validation Reports
 Good News! AIRA and the members of MACAW (the Measurement for Assessment and Certification Advisory Workgroup) continue to see improvement across the IIS community as IIS become better aligned with national standards. The latest results for Transport Validation and the first round of Submission/Acknowledgement and Query/Response Validation individual IIS results are available in the Aggregate Analysis Reporting Tool (AART) for authorized users. Starting July 31, summary validation reports for Transport will be updated on the AIRA Repository. In addition, summary validation reports for Submission/Acknowledgement and Query/Response will be available to IIS and CDC by request. Contact Kristi Siahaya to request a copy.
Next up? Clinical Decision Support Assessment begins in Quarter 4 of 2018!
We are celebrating! AIRA will be publicly recognizing those IIS that are validated at both the basic and complete levels for Transport at the AIRA National Meeting. Help congratulate your colleagues and have some fun acknowledging all the advancements in the IIS community! Haven’t yet made your travel plans? There is still time to register!
Open for Comment: CMS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
CMS has released a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), titled Medicare Program; Revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Revisions to Part B for CY 2019; Medicare Shared Savings Program Requirements; Quality Payment Program; and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program. AIRA will be consolidating comments from across our community, and we also encourage all jurisdictions to submit comments locally as well. The proposed rules can be found here. Comments are due on the proposed rules by 5 p.m. EST on September 10.
AIRA will be gathering comments on this proposed rule according to the following schedule:
- August 10: Community comments due to AIRA
- Week of August 20: Compiled draft comments reviewed on Town Hall and sent out to community
- August 31: Edits/additions to compiled draft comments due back to AIRA
- September 5: Final comments sent to IIS community for integration into jurisdictional comments
- September 10, 5 p.m. EST: Comments submitted to CMS
Please send all comments on the proposed rule to Brittany Gyer at AIRA.
Additional questions about the process or the proposed rule? Contact Mary Beth Kurilo. Thank you in advance for again rallying to submit comments for another NPRM. We greatly value your input and engagement, as it is critical that we weigh in on these important changes.
AIRA Welcomes a New Executive Assistant
 Jolyn Wright-Preston joined the AIRA staff in July 2018 as an executive assistant. Jolyn started her career at UBS financial services as a temp and within three years was hired and promoted as one of their youngest assistant vice presidents. She has also worked with Johnson & Johnson as an operations manager and L Brands (Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret) as an assistant and project manager.
Jolyn has experience with small businesses; consulting on digital marketing and website development; and project coordination. Jolyn loves '80s music (much to the chagrin of her husband) and is a mean Scrabble player.
Please join us in welcoming Jolyn to the AIRA team!
National Immunization Awareness Month
National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) is coming up in August! The National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) is releasing new and updated resources to help promote NIAM. The NIAM Communications Toolkit is being updated with the latest information on recommendations and statistics, new social media message, graphics and videos. A Spanish translation of the toolkit is also in the works. This year, the weekly themes for NIAM are pregnant women (August 5-11), babies and young children (August 12-18), preteen and teens (August 19-25) and adults (August 26-31). Use the hashtag #NIAM18 in your social media posts. To access the NIAM Communications Toolkit, click here.
Recent Information Requests Added to the AIRA Repository
Recent Information Requests regarding HEDIS requests and official immunization forms have been added to the AIRA repository and can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter. Information Requests are viewable only by individual members and individuals affiliated with member and partner organizations. Just log in to view these valuable resources!
Steering Committee Updates: July Recap
Assessment Steering Committee
- The Assessment Steering Committee (ASC) meets quarterly, and the next meeting is scheduled for September 4.
Education Steering Committee
- The Education Steering Committee (ESC) met on July 18 and received an update from the Public Health Informatics Institute on its upcoming “Welcome to IIS” email course and immunization evaluation and forecasting e-learning module.
- The ESC also discussed the AIRA 2018 National Meeting, the Education Plan, and upcoming ESC-hosted webinars.
- Articles for inclusion in the next edition of SnapShots are due August 31.
- The ESC held an Introduction to the AIRA Website webinar to introduce the top 10 features of the new AIRA website on July 19.
Standards and Interoperability Steering Committee
- The Standards and Interoperability Steering Committee (SISC) met on July 11, and Jim Daniel presented on consumer access and IIS access through personal health records.
- The committee also received a Technical Workgroup update.
- Next month, SISC will discuss the scope and process for the committee moving forward, including getting the right representation, agenda topics and the differences between the SISC and SISC Technical Workgroup meetings.
- Due to scheduling conflicts, the SISC Technical workgroup did not meet in July.
MIROW Steering Committee
- The MIROW Steering Committee (SC) met on July 19 and discussed the new MIROW topic (business continuity), the status of the MIROW subgroup projects, and the MIROW session at the AIRA National Meeting.
- Three MIROW subgroups continue to work on repackaging past guides, creating a common vocabulary document for all MIROW guides, and promoting the work of MIROW, respectively.
- The MIROW SC is also in the process of updating the MIROW Charter.
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