Immunization Registries

"Despite its goal of higher immunization rates and the rhethoric of protecting children, the National Immunization Program is simply the latest attempt to make our entire health-care industry a branch of the state."

A.J. Gokcek, research fellow, Pacific Research Institute, San Francisco, CA (waiting for publication title)

Note: Total of 122 medical clinics currently participating (about 16% of the state's total clinics that provide childhood immunization) according to the Minnesota Health Department on June 1, 1998.

• Communities Caring for Children (CCC)
  • 13 medical clinics in a 13 county area of Northwest Minnesota. Part of a comprehensive pre-natal and newborn health project.
  • Contact: Susan Olson
  • Address: Inter-County Nursing Services, 318 North Knight, Thief River Falls, MN 56701
  • Phone: 218-681-5950
• IMFO
  • 58 clinics participating. Merger talks underway with Hennepin county (see below) to create a 7-county metro system
  • Contact: Diane Holmgren
  • Address: St. Paul-Ramsey Public Health, 555 Cedar St., St. Paul, MN 55101
  • Phone: 612-292-7712
• ImmTrack
  • Currently has 8 clinics participating in a two county area surrounding Mankato; expanding to 10 counties in South Central Minnesota
  • Contact: Nancy Meyer
  • Address: Blue Earth County Public Health, 410 S. 5th St., Box 661, Mankato, MN 56002
  • Phone: 507-389-8372
• ImmuLink
  • Currently includes 19 clinics. Merger talks underway with St. Paul-Ramsey (see above) to create a 7-county metro system.
  • Contact: Allain Hankey
  • Address: Hennepin County Community Health, 525 Portland Ave. S., 3rd Floor, Mpls., MN 55415
  • Phone: 612-348-3045
• Southwest Immunization Information System (SIIS)
  • Currently includes 24 medical clinics in 11 counties, expanding to 21 counties in Southwest Minnesota
  • Recently (March 1998) received a $300,000 All Kids Count grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to implement expansion
  • Contact: Steve Louwagie
  • Address: Countryside Public Health Services, 210 South 13th St., Benson, MN 56215
  • Phone: 320-843-4546

From the National Immunization Program website: "On July 23, 1997, President Clinton called on the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Donna E. Shalala to investigate the feasibility of a network of electronically inter-connected state-and community-based immunization registries....As a result of the President's call to action, the National Vaccine Program Office and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Immunization Program (NIP) are proposing a series of "town meeting" workgroups with registry partners...Notices regarding the dates and locations of these "town meetings" would be published in the Federal Register and on NIP's registry web site . Proposed workgroup issues include:

• Privacy, confidentiality, and security;
• Funding, costs, and resource requirements;
• Technological challenges; and,
• Health care provider/stakeholder participation"

 

Testimony on Initiative for Immunization Registries

 

President of CCHC testified at the final federal hearing on Immunization Registries in Atlanta, Georgia on July 16 - 17. CCHC version

 

According to the CDC, only 13 people gave written public comments during the four public hearings:

 

0-New Orleans

1-Washington, D.C.

7-San Francisco

5-Atlanta

 

Oral testimony during the public comment period is listed under "meetings procedings."

 

• See the Registry of State-Level Efforts to Integrate Health Information
• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE): Chief Federal Agency involved in integration
• National Committee on Vital Health Statistics meeting (January 11, 2001): "Workgroup on National Health Information Infrastructure and the Workgroup on Health Statistics for the 21st Century."