Monthly Update

March 2020 in Review

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In This Issue…

1. AIRA 2020 National Meeting Update
2. Save the Date: Webinar on Using IIS to Support an Outbreak Response
3. Survey Extension: Federal Policy and Standards and Interoperability Surveys
4. Put Your IIS Program on the Map!
5. AIRA Board Corner: Mandy (Amanda) Harris, Immediate Past-President
6. SmartyStreets Success Stories
7. Measurement and Improvement: Quarter 1, 2020, Reports
8. Hafa Adai! Pacific Islands Regional Workshop in Guam
9. National Immunization Collaborative
10. Recent Information Requests Added to the AIRA Repository
11. Steering Committee Updates: March Recap

Check Out the AIRA Events Calendar for Upcoming…

• Don't-Miss Deadlines
• AIRA Events
• Webinars
• Committee Meetings
• AIRA Board of Directors Meetings
• Partner Events

AIRA 2020 National Meeting Update

AIRA is continuing to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation and assess scheduled activities and events to determine how to best support the IIS community. While there is a potential that this the pandemic will impact the AIRA National Meeting scheduled for August 11–13, 2020, no decision to cancel or delay the meeting has been made at this time. However, the speaker acceptance notifications, which were scheduled to be sent out on April 1, will be delayed. We appreciate your patience and will update you again by the end of April.

We also have a favor to ask. We very much hope that the situation allows for the AIRA 2020 National Meeting to be held as planned. If this is the case, and if travel restrictions are removed in your jurisdiction, it would be incredibly helpful to know the minimum amount of time (weeks/months) prior to the meeting you’d need to submit your travel request. If you haven't already responded, please take this three question survey by Friday, April 17, as possible.

Save the Date: Webinar on Using IIS to Support an Outbreak Response

The AIRA Education Steering Committee is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, April 14 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET about using an IIS to support outbreak response. The webinar will focus on stories and lessons learned from several IIS that may help other organizations in the event of an outbreak. Speakers from AIRA, CDC, and IIS programs will address IIS topics related to outbreak response. You can register for the webinar here. The webinar information can also be found on the AIRA website. We hope you will be able to join us!

Survey Extension: Federal Policy and Standards and Interoperability Surveys

We recognize that our members are very busy with their response to COVID-19, so we wanted to let jurisdictions know that we’ve extended the deadline to respond to the two surveys below. If you do have time to respond to these surveys, the timeline for responses has been extended to April 10, 2020. If you do not have time to respond, we understand. 

As a reminder, we are asking that you as IIS managers/points of contact coordinate one response for each of the two surveys from your jurisdiction. It will likely require you to reach out to separate colleagues across your immunization program for each survey. The two surveys are as follows:

1. The first survey is focused on Vaccines for Children (VFC) policies and IIS data quality. The purpose of this survey is to determine current practices and future preferences for VFC program policies related to IIS and the impact those policies have on data quality and completeness. AIRA will use this survey data to develop a considerations document for CDC/NCIRD that will provide insight into how policies are being implemented by jurisdictions and offer suggestions for future policies to support VFC and IIS programs. This survey should take approximately 20 minutes.
2. The second survey addresses standards, interoperability, and data volume. The purpose of this survey is twofold: to gather broad information about the community’s successes related primarily to interoperability, and to inform future content areas of Measurement and Improvement. This survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete, although gathering the data may take longer and, in some cases, may require coordination with your IIS vendor.

Put Your IIS Program on the Map!

AIRA is excited to announce a new geocoding contest! The goal of this contest is to encourage teams to use geocoded data in new and different ways. AIRA will recognize the IIS team that creates the most innovative map and/or data visualization using geocoded IIS data through SmartyStreets. SmartyStreets is a no-cost address cleansing and geocoding service funded by CDC and AIRA and available to all IIS programs.

Background
This is the second geocoding contest sponsored by AIRA. The Michigan Care Improvement Registry won first place in AIRA’s inaugural geocoding contest in 2018. The Michigan team mapped the administration and reporting of zoster vaccine by facility and month, from November 2016 to June 2018. Its entry was recognized as a creative way to highlight uptake, as well as to model the process over time of moving from one vaccine brand to another when a new product comes on the market.

Contest deadline
Entries must be submitted to Maureen Neary at [email protected] no later than June 15, 2020.

Contest rules

• Geocoded data may focus on any level or factor (patient, immunization, responsible party, provider, clinic, etc.).
• All data must be de-identified and not reveal any protected health information (PHI).
• All geocoded data must be generated from the SmartyStreets service.
• Participants may use the mapping software of their choice.
• A neutral panel of AIRA members will judge entries.
• Programs may submit up to three entries.
• Entries must be submitted in PDF or PowerPoint form.

Communications
Winners will be announced and recognized in August 2020. All entries will be shared with AIRA membership with credit given to participating programs.

SmartyStreets information
For information about connecting to SmartyStreets, please contact Maureen Neary at [email protected]. Questions about this geocoding contest can be sent to Mary Beth Kurilo at [email protected].

AIRA Board Corner: Mandy (Amanda) Harris, Immediate Past-President

Mandy is the IIS Integration Manager at Nevada WebIZ.

Summarize what you do, in a sentence. I assure the statewide IIS is integrated into all areas of the immunization program, used effectively, and well supported.

What’s your role(s) on the AIRA board? I am the Immediate Past-President and a member of the Governance Committee.

What do you like most about being on the AIRA board? Serving on the AIRA board lets me use my powers of critical thinking and communication for good! It is truly satisfying to work with such a wonderful group of people to make real change happen.

What is your favorite recent movie, book, or podcast and why? Becoming by Michelle Obama, which I found inspirational, enlightening, and grounding. She is such a fascinating woman!

What song do you play to get pumped up? "We Got the Beat" by The Go-Go’s. It works every time!

What’s your favorite vacation spot? Pacific Grove, California, right on Monterey Bay.

If you had a time machine, what time period would you visit and why? I would love to see the region in which I currently live as it was thousands of years ago—no buildings, no roads, no jets overhead, just nature.

How does your involvement on the AIRA board bring value to your program? It provides me with numerous opportunities to strengthen my leadership skills, including strategic planning, meeting facilitation, written communication, fiscal management, governance, and critical thinking. Service on the AIRA board demonstrates your state’s commitment to preventing vaccine-preventable diseases.

What most excites you about the IIS community? Its potential—to solve, to anticipate, and to adapt. No challenge is too big for us!

SmartyStreets Success Stories

AIRA is always looking for creative and compelling ways to encourage every IIS to use the no-cost SmartyStreets service supported by AIRA and CDC to standardize, validate, and geocode addresses within your system. AIRA member Rashid Malik from Maryland was kind enough to share his story of how his team has incorporated SmartyStreets to improve data quality in their system. Please consider leveraging SmartyStreets within your own system! For more information on accessing this unlimited service, contact Maureen Neary.

Rashid Malik
Immunization Registry Informatics/Database Manager
Maryland Department of Health

How long have you been using SmartyStreets? Since August 2019.

How is SmartyStreets implemented within your jurisdiction?
MDIIS (ImmuNet) is dynamically interfaced with the SmartyStreets API via a Cron job. This job takes in a list of location and/or address IDs and sends them to SmartyStreets in batches. It processes each returned address one by one and then continues processing subsequent batches until it exhausts the list of addresses. This process results in address hygiene and standardization that improves the overall data quality of our system.

How has SmartyStreets improved your data quality?
SmartyStreets has been tremendous in identifying "bad" and inaccurate addresses of our clients, partner organizations, responsible parties, and providers. It is now easier than ever to include/exclude data in any analyses based on the match score assigned to every record. Even the ZIP code-level data is more accurate, resulting in a more accurate assignment of other jurisdictions, like a county.

How are you using your geocoded data?
Maryland’s current focus is data quality, and SmartyStreets is a giant step toward that effort. Currently, we have not done much point/address-level mapping, but some potential exists for tracking outbreaks and pocket-of-need assessment in the near future. However, we have used SmartyStreets' enhanced ZIP code and/or county data to generate better reports.

What plans do you have for SmartyStreets in the future?
There are not many visual outcomes (maps, spatial analyses) at this point, but we have all the groundwork in place to achieve meaningful outcomes in the near future. We are also considering the linkage of our geocoded data with Tableau Server for more visual representations of our data.

What has surprised you the most about SmartyStreets?
SmartyStreets' data processing speed is excellent, and it can enhance millions of records in a matter of minutes. Other impressive features include nearly 100% uptime, excellent documentation, and cutting-edge security. Overall, SmartyStreets has been an excellent facilitator in our efforts of enhancing the data quality of our IIS.

Measurement and Improvement: Quarter 1, 2020, Reports

Individual IIS Assessment reports for Quarter 1 for all content areas (Transport, Submission, Query, and Clinical Decision Support) will be available in AART by the end of April. Transport, Submission, and Query Validation reports will also be available in AART throughout April and May.

Request a Report! Need an updated report or want an HL7 Testing and Discovery Report? You can request a report directly in AART. At the top of any current Testing and Discovery or Assessment report, you can click the “Request New Report” link to send an email to AIRA technical staff. Email requests can also be sent to [email protected].

Need help? AIRA’s technical assistance team is ready to assist you in understanding your AART dashboard and results, helping prioritize work, and supporting your movement toward better alignment with standards. Do not hesitate to contact us for technical assistance. We can quickly answer a question or dive deeper into topics such as assisting you and your IIS technical development team to better understand issues and make plans to more fully align with standards. Fill out a Technical Assistance Request or contact Kristi Siahaya at [email protected] for more information.

Hafa Adai! Pacific Islands Regional Workshop in Guam

On March 3–4, 2020, AIRA held a regional meeting in Guam for several of the Pacific Islands IIS teams. It was a great opportunity to share and discuss current activities and hot topics across this diverse group.

Attendees from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Envision Technology Partners, and CDC joined with AIRA staff to dive into a number of topics, including 2020–2021 cooperative agreement planning, the IIS Blueprint, Measurement and Improvement, interoperability and clinical decision support, and a full-day deep dive on developing business continuity plans. The group was stellar in its engagement and sharing of information, and all involved walked away with a deeper understanding of the amazing skills the Pacific Island teams bring in meeting their unique geographic and infrastructure challenges for immunizations. Thank you to all participants for an exceptionally enriching meeting!

National Immunization Collaborative

In January, the Immunization Collaborative identified four top priorities for action in 2020 to improve immunization interoperability, information sharing, and management. Convened by HIMSS, AIRA, and Chickasaw Health Consulting under a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Immunization Collaborative engages stakeholders and experts to identify common challenges and drive the development and adoption of solutions that enable both clinicians and IIS to have timely access to complete and accurate immunization data, to not only improve clinical decision-making but also increase vaccination coverage and reduce vaccine-preventable disease. Read about the top four priorities. 

Recent Information Requests Added to the AIRA Repository

The recent Information Request regarding provider organization level report cards/data quality reports can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter in the AIRA repository. 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].

Steering Committee Updates: March Recap