Countermeasure and Response Administration (CRA) System

Increasing the Ability of Public Health to Track and Manage Medical Countermeasures

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Countermeasure and Response Administration (CRA) is one component of the CDC Countermeasure Tracking Systems (CTS) program. CRA is an emergency response information system that is designed to track the administration and dispensing of countermeasures (i.e., pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and other medical material, such as personal protective equipment) to local populations, usually via Points of Dispensing (PODs) or Vaccination and Dispensing Clinics. During a public health emergency, public health agencies may need to collect and track information about countermeasures administered or dispensed to the affected population. CRA supports tracking of medical countermeasure dispensing and vaccine administration at both individual and aggregate levels, enabling public health departments at all levels to easily analyze and report data to CDC, if needed. CRA also accepts aggregate data from state Immunization Information Systems through a data exchange capability, which can then be reported to CDC.

Background

CRA began with the CDC Pre-event Vaccination System (PVS) that CDC implemented nationwide to track and monitor the administration of smallpox vaccine as part of the National Smallpox Preparedness Program. Building from this success and by using local, state, and CDC input, CDC expanded CRA for national, state, and local use. It was used to track vaccine doses administered during the initial weeks of the 2009 H1N1 vaccination campaign and to monitor and report information about persons returning from West Africa with Ebola exposure during the 2015 Ebola outbreak.

System Features

CRA application capabilities are designed to help track the administration and dispensing of countermeasures during a public health emergency. These capabilities include:

• collecting data on vaccine doses administered and dispensing of pharmaceuticals or medical equipment at clinic sites,
• transmitting vaccine administration data with Immunization Information Systems, and
• aggregating and reporting doses administered data to CDC, if needed.

CRA is a Web-based application deployed centrally at CDC that uses CDC’s secure data access method. It is internet accessible by using any standard Web browser and is free of charge to users. In addition, CRA may be deployed on a stand-alone basis to support jurisdictional operations if the Internet is not available.

View the CRA Fact Sheet.