Monthly Update

September 2020 in Review

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In This Issue…

1. AIRA's COVID-19 Response Update
2. Welcome Damon Ferlazzo to AIRA
3. Virtual AART Clinics - Schedule Now
4. Changes at AIRA
5. Staggering Statistics for SmartyStreets
6. New Learning Community Offers Training and Support for New IIS Leaders
7. Measurement & Improvement Updates
8. AIRA Board Corner: Heather Roth, Treasurer
9. Are You Using Tableau?
10. Information Requests
11. Committee and Workgroup Updates: September Recap
12. AIRA Job Opportunities
13. In the News - September 2020

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's COVID-19 Response Update

Greetings,

As the leaves begin to change and we greet a new season, we are closer and closer to the arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine and implementing the plans you have been developing and adapting over the last many months.

Though information is changing quickly, we at AIRA are trying our best to keep our members and partners informed, and are working on ways to continue to offer our support as implementing response plans comes closer. Here are some important September updates:

• The CDC shared the first version of the required and optional data elements and a data dictionary for vaccine monitoring and administration, with plans to update and expand data requirements related to inventory and distribution soon. More information on the IZ Gateway and IZ Data Lake have been shared on recent all-awardee calls and in the weekly IISSB Information Brief. Find relevant documents and recordings on CDC’s SharePoint site.
• On September 16, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense released the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook with details on planning and implementing a COVID-19 vaccination response. Jurisdiction plans are due October 16. A COVID-19 Vaccination Plan template is available on CDC’s SharePoint site and in the AIRA repository (for members only).
• In response to the release of the playbook, AIRA hosted a town hall to identify IIS priority areas and additional support and guidance needed as jurisdictions finalize their response plans. AIRA also hosted four planning sessions for IIS programs to collaborate on their plans for the COVID-19 vaccine response.
• AIRA’s COVID-19 Workgroup now meets every other week and continues to give feedback on Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) functionality and implementation, with recent discussions focused on the September 1 and 2 VAMS demos for all jurisdictions, VAMS training plans, and inventory management. A recording of the VAMS demo is available on CDC’s SharePoint site.
• AIRA continues to participate in Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meetings where critical decisions, such as priority groups and vaccine allocation, are evaluated.
• AIRA also participated in and presented on the role of IIS in pandemic response at the September 23 and 24 National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting.
• AIRA and partners continue to help states connect to the IZ Gateway. Important information, updates, and answers to questions related to the IZ Gateway, legal agreements, VAMS, and more are in the weekly IISSB Information Brief. Be sure to read this each week!

AIRA will continue to work alongside our members and partners during the upcoming response. Please keep us posted with ways we can help you and with any topics we can help to address.

Rebecca Coyle, MSEd
Executive Director

Welcome Damon Ferlazzo to AIRA

We are very excited to welcome and introduce our newest AIRA staff member, Damon Ferlazzo!

Damon Ferlazzo joined AIRA as a Business Analyst in September 2020. His primary focus is the Immunization Integration Program (IIP). Prior to this role, Damon worked for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) for seven years. Damon started as the Missouri ShowMeVax IIS manager, moved to the Data Quality Manager position, then served as the Interim Chief for the Bureau of Reportable Disease Informatics. He finished his career at DHSS as the Deputy Administrator for the Section for Disease Prevention. Prior to his work in public health, Damon worked with longitudinal education-workforce data systems as a research analyst for the Missouri Department of Higher Education. Welcome to AIRA, Damon!

IIS Well-Visit Reminder: Schedule Your Virtual AART Clinic Now

AIRA is excited to offer 30-minute virtual appointments for you and your IIS team to:

• Meet with AIRA technical staff to review the Aggregate Analysis Reporting Tool (AART) testing results
• Discuss detailed and practical recommendations for improvements

This year will also feature the M&I: COVID-19 Standards Alignment Report in addition to the current AART content areas evaluating how your IIS functions compared to national standards and best practices. This new report will provide measurable aspects for IIS to review in preparation for a novel vaccine. Find more information on this report in the M&I Update in this newsletter.

Please coordinate with your IIS team to choose a day and time that works for you. We encourage you to come prepared with questions, as the clinics are meant to be interactive. Sign up here to register for a virtual 30-minute AART clinic. Contact Assiatou Diallo for more information.

Changes at AIRA

At the end of 2019 under the oversight of the Board of Directors, AIRA initiated an organizational design project. The goal of the project was to take a fresh look at how AIRA is organized to deliver its activities and to identify ways to make staffing and support as strategic, efficient, and effective as possible.

Why was the project initiated?
Simply put, this project was initiated to discuss the evolution of AIRA; review the organization’s committees, workgroups, and projects; and help AIRA continue to best meet the needs of the community and the organization.

The organizational design project aligned with two priority areas of the AIRA 2020–2024 Strategic Plan:

• Priority Area III: Provide the necessary organizational infrastructure to support the work of AIRA
• Priority Area II: Address the gap between member needs and utilization of AIRA resources and services

Who participated in the project?
The voice of the community was integral to and integrated into the organizational design project. Your elected representatives, the Officers/Executive Committee, and the AIRA Board of Directors had direct oversight of and input into the project. We used the AIRA Education Survey results to inform the project every step of the way. And EVERYONE responded to the survey! Responses came from all member state and city immunization program jurisdictions, the District of Columbia, and six territories and islands. AIRA staff and leadership also engaged in the project and shared their intimate knowledge of the offerings of AIRA, expertise, and insights.

Project results
In June 2020 the Board of Directors approved the project team’s recommendations to simplify and streamline while continuing to seek maximum engagement of our community. As a result, some workgroups and steering committees were identified to “keep as is,” some were identified to “refine/evolve,” and some were identified to “sunset.”

Keep as is: The evaluation determined a committee/workgroup is well-functioning and high value. These committees/workgroups were maintained as is, with no changes:

• Standards & Interoperability Steering Committee
• Measurement for Assessment & Certification Advisory Workgroup

Refine: The evaluation determined there is an opportunity to refine, improve, and enhance a committee/workgroup. Committee scope and structural changes have been/will be implemented for the following committees/workgroups:

• Modeling of Immunization Registry Operations Workgroup
• HL7 Immunization User Group
• Address Cleansing User Group
• Joint Development & Implementation Advisory Workgroup
• IIS Interstate Data Exchange Community of Practice (co-facilitated by AIRA and ASTHO)

Sunset: The evaluation identified more efficient ways to achieve current committee/workgroup goals and objectives. This does not mean the work is not important. These committees/workgroups have been or will be sunset, and new strategies to meet important committee/workgroup-related goals and objectives will be implemented:

• Awardee Developed User Group, sunset in June 2020
• Message Quality Evaluation User Group, sunset in July 2020
• Assessment Steering Committee, sunsetting in December 2020
• Education Steering Committee, sunsetting in December 2020

AIRA sincerely appreciates the valuable contributions these groups have made to the organization over the past 10 or more years. There will continue to be opportunities for contribution and engagement with AIRA. A new “Offering Review and Renewal” process will be launched at the beginning of 2021. It will include opportunities to contribute and connect, such as advising on approaches to delivering education, sharing insights into emerging needs and trends, serving as a subject matter expert, and more. We will share more information on these opportunities soon!

Staggering Statistics for SmartyStreets

Over 100 MILLION!!! You heard that right. From January to August 2020, 157,744,031 addresses submitted by IIS were cleansed and geocoded by SmartyStreets. This means that:

• On average, 19,718,004 IIS addresses were cleansed and geocoded each month
• On average, 646,492 IIS addresses were cleansed and geocoded each day

Through use of SmartyStreets, all addresses in the IIS are verified and formatted in accordance with the United States Postal Service database and standards.

If you need to cleanse a large number of addresses in a relatively short time, then look no further than SmartyStreets. AIRA and the CDC offer access to SmartyStreets for all AIRA members at no cost.

Want to learn more about what SmartyStreets offers? Need to understand how to use the service? We’re here to help! For information about address cleansing and geocoding, visit the Address Cleansing Service page on the AIRA website or contact Tesha Lucas to learn more.

New Learning Community Offers Special Training and Support for New IIS Leaders

In August 2020, CDC, AIRA, and the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) launched their New IIS Leaders Learning Community. The purpose of this collaborative learning community is to give new IIS leaders (IIS managers and immunization program managers) a support network and forum for leadership development. Over the past five years, annual in-person IIS Leadership Workshops were held in Atlanta, Georgia. However, due to COVID-19, the workshop will change to an online learning community for the foreseeable future.

Twelve individuals representing IIS programs across the continental U.S., American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of Mariana Islands are slated to participate in the 2020 New IIS Leaders Learning Community. Over the course of the monthly webinars, participants will be supported by faculty through mentorship, resource sharing, and peer-to-peer learning. The webinars will use remote learning and community-building activities to achieve these goals. At each webinar, the new leaders will have access to faculty with deep IIS content knowledge and experience. The community will provide a place for participants to work through specific questions or challenges they may face on the job in their jurisdictions. Learning community faculty will bring real-world examples of IIS work, ideas, and resources (such as tools and templates) to provide support, insight, and guidance.

If your immunization program recently hired an IIS manager or immunization program manager who was not already invited to join the 2020 cohort, contact Sara Sanford (PHII) or Beth Cox (CDC) to request inclusion in the learning community.

Measurement & Improvement Updates

Coming soon! Be on the lookout for a new report in the Aggregate Analysis Reporting Tool (AART) in mid-October. The M&I: COVID-19 Standards Alignment Report will provide IIS programs with measures and test data related to IIS capabilities in preparation for a novel vaccine. Although some measures will be presented as meets/does not meet, the report is meant to be an aid to assist with IIS and immunization program preparation and readiness rather than an evaluation or ranking of individual IIS readiness.

The Identified Standards/Expectations section of the report will be a set of excerpted measures that the M&I Initiative already has test cases created for, which will help IIS specifically with data exchange for COVID-19. These items were already recommended before COVID-19. They are critically important to support and maintain interoperability, particularly as IIS reach out to new and non-traditional partners.

The report will also create a link to the Interactive Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Report Results Explorer. Users can see at a glance how closely they align with Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and CDSi specifications regarding the catch-up immunization schedule and can excerpt and review only those CDS test cases that apply to the catch-up schedule. Using this tool, IIS can focus attention on any improvements that will help their system better support routine vaccination for existing patients.

Have questions or need help? AIRA’s technical assistance team is ready to help you understand your AART dashboard and results, prioritize work, and support 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 for more information.

AIRA Board Corner: Heather Roth, Treasurer

Title: Immunization Branch Chief

What I do: I provide leadership and strategic direction for Colorado's Immunization Branch, managing activities to detect and respond to immunization public health needs.

Organization’s name: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment

Role on the AIRA board: Treasurer 

What do you like most about being on the AIRA board? I love being "in the know" on AIRA activities and making connections with other IIS programs.

What excites you most about the IIS community? The IIS community continues to lead the nation in advancing interoperability and promoting health.

What is one go-to resource you use to support your IIS work? I access the AIRA repository constantly for resources to share with staff as they initiate projects.

What is your favorite recent movie, book, or podcast and why? East of Eden (not recent and not my first time reading, but I adore Steinbeck's attention to detail and character development).

What is your motto? Let go of what no longer serves you.  

What’s your favorite vacation spot? France

If you had a time machine, what time period would you visit and why? France during the High Middle Ages. I have always admired Eleanor of Aquitaine for her power and compelling story.

Are You Using Tableau?

Are you a current Tableau user? Do you want to expand your skill set? Or are you interested in learning Tableau to visualize and communicate your IIS data more effectively?

In the next few months, AIRA will kick off a Tableau user group. To make it worthwhile and beneficial, we want to ask you five quick questions. These will help us gain a better understanding of your status regarding IIS data visualization.

If you currently use Tableau or want to become a user, please take 30 seconds (yes, it’s really that short!) to let us know you are interested. Click here to access the survey, or email Courtnay Londo for details.

Information Requests

AIRA members can submit and review information requests—a circulation of questions to and answers from the community. Check out past Information Requests 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].

Committee and Workgroup Updates: September Recap