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2018-2020 CDC IMMUNIZATION 

INFORMATION SYSTEM STRATEGIC PLAN

October 1, 2017
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CONTENTS

Introduction........................................................................................................................................................ 2

Purpose................................................................................................................................................................ 2

Strategic Priority 1: Enhance IIS performance ............................................................................................. 3

Strategic Priority 2: Promote adherence to IIS standards.......................................................................... 4

Strategic Priority 3: Sustain the IIS community.............................................................................................. 5

Strategic Priority 4: Influence and monitor the health IT environment ................................................... 6
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INTRODUCTION

Immunization information systems (IISs) are confidential, population-based, computerized 

databases that record all immunization doses administered by participating providers to 

persons residing within a given geopolitical area.

• At the point of clinical care, IISs provide consolidated immunization histories for use by a

vaccination provider in determining appropriate patient vaccinations.

• At the population level, IISs provide aggregate data on vaccinations for use in surveillance

and program operations, and in guiding public health action with the goals of improving

vaccination rates and reducing vaccine-preventable disease.

Use of the Term IIS 

Throughout this document, the term “IIS” is used to represent the information systems, the 

programs, the people, and the processes associated with the systems. 

PURPOSE

This strategic plan encompasses strategies for three fiscal years, 2018 through 2020, and aims 

to continue progress in the areas of IIS performance, standards, sustainability, and 

strengthening connections to the health IT environment. The plan builds upon the previous 

strategic plan that spanned Fiscal Years 2014 through 2017, carrying forward and enhancing 

many strategies already identified. This strategic plan, developed with guidance from the IIS 

community through the IIS Executive Board, focuses on a smaller set of priority areas and 

strategies intended to help the CDC prioritize investments and realize greater impact in key 

priority focus areas (see Figure 1). 

IIS Vision: Real-time, consolidated immunization data and services for all ages are

available for authorized clinical, administrative, and public health users and consumers, 

anytime and anywhere. 

IISSB Mission: Maximize protection against vaccine-preventable diseases by leading

the advancement of immunization information systems (IISs).
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Figure 1: IIS Strategic Priorities

PARTNERSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION

IIS success is built on a strong foundation of partnerships and collaboration. While some 

priorities call out specific partnership and communications tactics to support strategic priority 

areas, CDC will renew focus on strengthening existing relationships, building new relationships 

to support IISs, and improving communications with IIS stakeholders across all of the priority 

areas. The strategies in this document require effective engagement with state and local IISs, 

partner organizations, and other stakeholders in order to meet the goals set forth below. 

Implementation of this plan will ensure that these stakeholders understand the value of IISs

and work collaboratively to achieve success. 

1. STRATEGIC PRIORITY 1: ENHANCE IIS PERFORMANCE

IISs have matured individually as immunization programs have recognized their value and 

invested in their systems to address point of clinical care and population level strategies in their 

jurisdictions. However, IISs are increasingly viewed as one national network of systems, rather 

than a collection of independent systems, so the success of each IIS depends, in part, on the 

successes of the IIS community as a whole. Performance disparities that currently exist in the IIS 

community must be resolved by ensuring all IISs contain robust functionalities and high data 

quality. Strategies in this plan help to advance all IISs to be high-performing systems that can 

support providers at point of clinical care by ensuring up-to-date vaccination histories are 

available to guide clinical decision support and reminder recall, and at a population level by 

providing accurate data that can inform strategic decisions to improve vaccination coverage 
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and reduce vaccine-preventable diseases. Increasingly, state immunization programs rely on 

their IISs as critical infrastructure to support immunization ordering and inventory 

management, to serve as trusted sources of population coverage estimates, and to provide 

tools to support programmatic and policy decision making, such as near real-time immunization 

coverage estimates, identification of pockets of need, and AFIX assessments.

Goal 1.1: Elevate performance across all IISs to ensure their ability to improve and sustain 

immunization coverage levels for children, adolescents, and adults.

Strategies to support Goal 1.1: 

■ Develop mechanisms to assist state and local immunization program awardees

(“awardees”) in prioritizing IIS efforts, defining IIS measures of success, and performing

new and routine IIS activities.

■ Create new and build upon existing partnerships and initiatives to address technical and 

nontechnical challenges to improving IIS performance.

■ Provide proactive technical assistance to groups of awardees to solve common 

challenges. 

■ Measure progress of IISs toward achievement of this goal by establishing and tracking

meaningful measures.

2. STRATEGIC PRIORITY 2: PROMOTE ADHERENCE TO IIS STANDARDS

There is a movement toward increased standardization across a broad spectrum of health IT 

systems in the United States. The ability of IISs to demonstrate adherence to national standards 

increases the credibility and value of IISs, contributes to improved program sustainability, and 

advances performance. It is important for CDC and the IIS community to promote 

standardization, develop new IIS standards and best practices for high-priority needs, and 

reduce implementation variability across the community to ensure IISs remain relevant in an 

evolving health IT ecosystem. This requires investments in initiatives with direct and indirect 

impacts to IIS functions to ensure that IISs are able to achieve the standards. 
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Goal 2.1: Promote widespread use of IIS standards and best practices.

Strategies to support Goal 2.1: 

■ Develop, enhance, maintain, and disseminate IIS standards and best practices to 

awardees. 

■ Provide technical assistance to users of IIS standards to ensure accurate and consistent 

implementation.

■ Develop, expand, implement, and maintain independent assessments of IIS 

functionality, data quality, and adherence to standards.

3. STRATEGIC PRIORITY 3: SUSTAIN THE IIS COMMUNITY

Many immunization stakeholders increasingly recognize the benefits of IISs, resulting in 

additional demands on IISs to develop and support new functions, such as supporting AFIX 

assessments, inter-jurisdictional data exchange, bi-directional data exchange with providers, 

consumer access to immunization records, and inclusion of adults in IISs. Sustainability of IISs

nationwide depends on diversifying mechanisms of financial support for IISs, identifying new 

ways to reduce costs and use existing resources effectively, and ensuring access to a welltrained IIS workforce.

Goal 3.1: IISs have a diversified, stable resource base to meet program and system needs. 

Strategies to support Goal 3.1: 

■ Identify opportunities to help awardees acquire more diverse means of sustaining their

IIS.

■ Develop tools to help awardees access diverse mechanisms and/or funding sources to 

support IIS sustainability.
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Goal 3.2: Immunization program awardees have access to adequate workforce resources to 

fulfill all IIS activities and to manage and sustain robust systems and programs. 

Strategies to support Goal 3.2: 

■ Maximize existing IIS resources by offering centralized training curriculum and 

workforce development services to the IIS community.

■ Develop effective mechanisms to augment the IIS workforce at the state and local level.

Goal 3.3: IISs implement strategies to efficiently and effectively leverage existing and new 

resources. 

Strategies to support Goal 3.3: 

■ Promote use of shared and centralized IIS services.

■ Implement strategies in the IIS community that reduce variation in development and 

implementation of technical and nontechnical solutions. 

4. STRATEGIC PRIORITY 4: INFLUENCE AND MONITOR THE HEALTH IT 

ENVIRONMENT

State and local health departments and health care providers increasingly depend on 

technology to achieve and maintain high vaccination coverage, including IISs and electronic 

health record (EHR) systems. Standards development organizations (SDOs) as well as federal 

and industry organizations impact the delivery of immunization services by setting policies and 

strategies, and providing guidance and support, for these technologies. CDC works actively to 

engage immunization stakeholders to advance interoperability and use of immunization data 

and functions, thereby supporting high quality immunization services and ultimately improving 

immunization delivery.
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Goal 4.1: Health IT systems support effective individual and population-level immunization

services.

Strategies to support Goal 4.1: 

 Develop system-neutral solutions and standards that support effective immunization 

services in diverse health IT systems.

 Establish initiatives to ensure effective implementation and use of IISs within the health 

IT environment.IISS