Executive Director's Update
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Another month has passed, marking the halfway point of this calendar year. This month brought with it a significant milestone with the long-awaited and much-anticipated approval of COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest in our population. June also saw the return of a hybrid National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) meeting and an in-person National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). You can read more about NVAC later in this edition. The NCSL convened approximately 50 state legislators to hear public health updates spanning multiple topics, including vaccines and immunizations.
In addition to meetings, several funding opportunities for jurisdictions were announced, including a new grant opportunity from CDC titled “Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems.” A link to the grants.gov funding opportunity announcement is available here. This grant opportunity provides $3.9 billion in funding for strengthening the public health workforce for the coming five years. It is highly likely that health departments are aware of this funding opportunity, and we strongly encourage you to work with your internal teams to advocate for IIS inclusion in your jurisdiction’s application. We are planning to send out future communications on potential IIS activities and resources for your consideration and potential inclusion in grant applications. Applications are due August 15, 2022.
Lastly, I’m excited to share a project AIRA has been helping to coordinate between the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) research network and many of you. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines on long-term outcomes of COVID-19 illness. AIRA has reached out to all IIS programs with a research site for the project in their jurisdiction. If you haven’t yet responded, it isn’t too late to participate, so please let us know of your interest.
I hope you are able to take a well-deserved vacation this summer or are at least able to take some time away from work.
Rebecca Coyle, MSEd
Executive Director
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June National Vaccine Advisory Committee Meeting
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This month the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) met on June 15 and16. This meeting was the first-ever hybrid meeting, with attendees joining in person and virtually.
Admiral Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health, opened the meeting thanking public health workers for their service throughout the pandemic. Dr. Levine then tasked the committee with developing two specific items:
- A report to provide recommendations to spur innovation (due September 2023)
- A report to review and recommend safety systems (due June 2023)
As more information about the development of these reports becomes available, we will send more information.
The Vaccine Confidence and Research Workgroup shared draft recommendations intended to foster confidence in vaccines. NVAC plans to approve recommendations during the September 2022 meeting. Presentations throughout the meeting addressed innovations in general vaccine development, development of vaccines for poverty-associated disease (such as lymphatic filariasis), easing cold chain considerations, and the evolving monkeypox situation.
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Upcoming Data Visualization Training Opportunities
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This summer, AIRA will be providing two new training opportunities for individuals interested in using Power BI.
Introduction to Power BI
We will be offering two sessions of Introduction to Power BI (for individuals interested in learning Power BI basics). This training is free and fully customized, using state immunization data.
Power BI Summer Blast: two-week intensive course
Our Summer Blast session will include two weeks of intensive training with two class sessions per week. Each class will be 4.5 hours long and will include a 30-minute lunch break. You must be available for and commit to all four sessions to qualify for this course. Below are the dates and options for this course:
- Option 1: July 5, 7, 12, 14 (Tues and Thurs) from noon to 4:30 p.m. ET
- Option 2: August 9, 11, 16, 18 (Tues and Thurs) from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET
Due to popularity, at this time, the trainings are being offered to AIRA members representing state/territorial IIS programs only.
Join our wait list to learn about future trainings!
We continue to add trainings to our calendar, based on jurisdiction need and interest. Additional trainings coming this fall or later include:
- Intro to Tableau
- Tableau Intermediate
- Intro to Power BI
Be sure to fill out the training applications below to be added to our wait list.
We look forward to seeing you and your colleagues at a future data visualization training! In the meantime, please be sure to join us during one of our data visualization user groups.
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New Training Coming Soon: Provider Organization Onboarding for IIS
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Course description
AIRA is excited to announce a new training series dedicated to IIS provider onboarding! This offering will provide a live, instructor-led, six-week course designed to build and enhance your capacity to conduct provider onboarding in alignment with best practices and recommendations. Weekly sessions will include a deep dive into each step of the onboarding process as well as provide opportunities to respond to onboarding scenarios and identify possible enhancements to your jurisdiction’s onboarding processes and documentation.
The course will draw on and highlight recommendations from two key AIRA guidance documents: Onboarding Consensus-Based Recommendations and Data Validation Guide for the IIS Onboarding Process. It also includes a review of several AIRA onboarding templates and tools developed to help participants put these recommendations into practice.
Target audience
This course was developed for jurisdictional IIS staff responsible for the provider onboarding process (i.e., IIS staff responsible for activities associated with establishing an electronic interface between a provider’s electronic health record system and an IIS). IIS managers and other immunization program staff may also benefit from participating to better understand the IIS activities involved in the onboarding process.
Save the date
Registration for the course will open August 1, 2022, and sessions will begin on September 7, 2022. For questions, please email Sarah Wible.
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Are you a data analyst known for your organizational skills? If so, we need you!
AIRA is seeking a few data analysts to help create a shared code library for the community. This library would be an electronic storage place where IIS data analysts can share, copy, and edit code for their own projects. Relevant, non-proprietary code and scripts would be welcome.
Volunteer data analysts would provide insight into the best way to index and organize the code library and/or help to conduct end-user testing. Interested data analysts across all coding levels, languages, and IIS platforms are encouraged to contact AIRA.
If you are interested, please email [email protected] with the subject “Code Library Help.”
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23 IIS and Immunization Program Staff Share and Learn at the IIS Leadership Workshop with PHII, CDC, and AIRA
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The 2022 IIS Leadership Workshop was held May 17–19 in Atlanta, Georgia, and hosted the largest group of participants in the event’s near-decade-long history. The workshop, coordinated and led by the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII), is sponsored by CDC and supported by AIRA as a collaborating partner. After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the participants, faculty, and presenters were able to gather again at the PHII offices in downtown Decatur for three days of learning, discussion, and peer-to-peer collaboration.
This year’s workshop hosted 23 participants from 18 jurisdictions, and they discussed a broad range of topics, including data quality, change management, laws, policies and procedures, the software development life cycle (SDLC), and myriad additional IIS priority issues. Highlights of this year’s workshop included a presentation about the future of IIS from Lynn Gibbs-Scharf, branch chief for the CDC IIS Support Branch, and opportunities to meet all five CDC IIS subject matter experts.
Thanks to all the participants from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, D.C., Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New York City, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming who came together to connect and collaborate.
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AIRA members can submit and review information requests—a circulation of questions to and answers from the community. The recent information request on the topic below can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter in the AIRA repository.
- Minor Consent
- COVID-19 Vaccine Response Scheduling and Administration Solutions
Information requests are viewable only by individual members and individuals affiliated with member and partner organizations. Just log in to view these valuable resources! If you have any questions, please email [email protected].
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Committee and Workgroup Updates: June Recap
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HL7 Immunization User Group
- The HL7 Immunization User Group met on June 9.
- The group received updates about the Standards and Interoperability Steering Committee (SISC), HL7 Innovations Workgroup, and HL7 FHIR Dev Days.
- Nathan Bunker gave a presentation on query basics in IIS.
- The user group also convened a community panel with members from the IIS community to discuss query.
- The next meeting is July 14, 2022, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET.
Measurement for Assessment & Certification Advisory Workgroup (MACAW)
- MACAW met on June 9.
- The workgroup received updates on the upcoming MACAW in-person meeting scheduled for July.
- MACAW discussed the content area of onboarding and also talked about patient and vaccine matching.
- The next meeting is July 14, 2022, from noon to 1 p.m. ET.
Modeling of Immunization Registry Operations Workgroup (MIROW)
Power BI User Group (PUG)
- PUG met on June 28.
- PUG has welcomed nine new users to the group since the last meeting!
- Stephanie Gretsch, from the Chicago Department of Health, presented on the topic “Power BI Use at the Chicago Department of Health for COVID-19 and Beyond.”
- The next meeting is August 23, 2022, from noon to 1 p.m. ET. Interested in joining? Please email Amber Buckland.
Smarty User Group
Standards & Interoperability Steering Committee (SISC)
- SISC met on June 8.
- Paloma Hawry, speaking on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave an update on code sets.
- Craig Newman gave the committee an update on Helios FHIR.
- AIRA staff asked the committee to submit any comments on CMS MIPS by June 17.
- Mary Beth Kurilo discussed with the committee IGs/IGAMT documentation on expected behaviors and aligning those behaviors.
- The next meeting is July 13, 2022, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET.
Tableau User Group (TUG)
NOTE: Meeting minutes will capture only action items and decisions made. Recordings of the meetings can be obtained directly upon request by emailing [email protected].
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Are you interested in working for AIRA or in the IIS community? Find current job openings at AIRA and other states/jurisdictions on the Employment Opportunities and Requests for Proposals page on the AIRA website.
- AIRA is seeking a full-time program assistant to join the Education and Outreach team. The program assistant will review AIRA resources and provide formatting support to ensure brand adherence, assist with the graphic design process by serving as administrative support and liaison between graphic designers and project leads, support organization communication activities, help with annual conference preparation, support management of AIRA’s website and social media channels, and more. The ideal candidate will have incredible attention to detail, a positive, optimistic, can-do attitude, great problem-solving skills, a strong work ethic, a good sense of humor, and the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment. This position closes on July 10, 2022.
Opportunities for independent contractors
To be notified of future contracting opportunities, please sign up here.
- There are no opportunities currently.
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