Q&A About IIS Sentinel Sites

A: The National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) provides competitive supplemental funds to select Immunization Information Systems (IIS) that have achieved high data quality standards to use their IIS for program evaluation and vaccine use assessments. Sentinel Sites partner with NCIRD to track patterns in immunization practices and assess vaccination coverage among children less than 19 years of age in their sentinel site geographic regions.

Members of the 2013-2017 IIS Sentinel Site Project include:

• Michigan Department of Community Health
  • Rachel Potter, DVM,MS
  • Cristi Carlton, MPH
• Minnesota Department of Health
  • Miriam Muscoplat, MPH
  • Erin Roche, MPH, CPH
• North Dakota Department of Health
  • Molly Howell, MPH
  • Mary Woinarowicz
• New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
  • Vikki Papadouka, PhD, MPH
  • Alexandra Ternier, MPH
• Oregon Immunization Program, Public Health Division, DHS
  • Andrew Osborn, MBA
  • Kathy D. Scott, DrPH
• Wisconsin Immunization Program
  • Ashley Petit, MPH

A: For the 2013-2017 project period, immunization programs in the U.S. (50 states, District of Columbia, 5 cities, and 8 territories) who met the following minimum data quality standards could apply for competitive Sentinel Site funds. Awards were made in late 2012.

• Applicants must have a population-based IIS in the geographic areas served.
• Applicants must use their entire IIS geographic jurisdiction or identify a sub-population of their jurisdiction to be used as their sentinel site area for evaluation purposes. The selected jurisdiction must include:
  • at least 85% of child and adolescent provider sites participating in the IIS (i.e. have submitted data in the last six months) and
  • at least 85% of the children <19 years of age participating in the IIS. Participation is defined as a child having at least two doses of vaccine recorded in the IIS.
  • At least 70% of the doses administered from this sentinel site area submitted to and processed by the IIS within 30 days of vaccine administration.

  When selecting a subpopulation or portion of the total jurisdiction, the sub-population must also include:

  • contiguous counties
  • At least 200,000 children in the jurisdiction

A:

1. Conduct timely monitoring of trends in vaccination;
2. Conduct IIS-based evaluations in the following categories:
   1. IIS-Electronic Health Record (EHR) Interoperability
   2. IIS System Functionality
   3. IIS-Based Analytic Methods for Vaccine Use Studies
   4. Use of IIS to Support Immunization Partners
3. Publish and present findings from their evaluations and assessments;
4. Serve as subject matter experts in the analysis of IIS data.