[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 39 (Tuesday, February 27, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12524-12525]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-4720]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


The Committee on Immunization Registry Standards and Electronic 
Transactions and the American Immunization Registry Association 
Sponsored Meeting of Software Vendors for Healthcare Providers: Meeting

    Name: Meeting with software vendors for healthcare providers 
sponsored by the Committee on Immunization Registry Standards and 
Electronic Transactions and the American Immunization Registry 
Association.
    Time and Date: 10 a.m.-1 p.m., July 12, 2001.
    Place: Arkansas' Excelsior Hotel, Three Statehouse Plaza, Little 
Rock, Arkansas 72201, telephone 501-375-5000.
    Status: Open to the public, including all software vendors for 
healthcare providers, limited only by the space available. The meeting 
room accommodates approximately 200 people.

Purpose: Immunization Registries Issue Invitation to Vendors of 
Software for Healthcare Providers

    The Committee on Immunization Registry Standards and Electronic 
Transactions(CIRSET), in cooperation with the American Immunization 
Registry Association (AIRA), invites vendors of healthcare software 
systems to participate in a meeting on July 12, 2001, from 10:00 a.m. 
to 1:00 p.m., in conjunction with the Annual Immunization Registry 
Conference being held at the Arkansas' Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, 
AK. The meeting will explore the potential for two-way data exchange 
between provider software and state and community immunization 
registries, as envisioned by CIRSET, AIRA, the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention's National Immunization Program (NIP), and state 
and local immunization registry programs.

Challenge

    Immunization registries face technical challenges similar to those 
faced by most of the healthcare industry today--how to enable 
communication among numerous disparate systems. Registries have been 
developed by a number of different entities--managed care 
organizations, independent software vendors, states, cities, counties, 
and local communities.
    The developers of these registries chose the hardware and software 
support platforms that worked best within their own systems, but the 
resulting applications cannot communicate with each other except 
through expensive, custom interfaces.
    Traditionally, these practices have caused vendors of practice 
management systems to have difficulty implementing immunization record 
exchange because each immunization registry had a different vision, 
format, and protocol for data exchange. This problem has been addressed 
using a national standard for electronic data exchange, Health Level 
Seven. The standard was used to develop an implementation guide for 
immunization data exchange entitled, ``Implementation Guide for 
Immunization Data Transactions Using Version 2.3.1 of the Health Level 
Seven (HL7) Standard Protocol,'' June 1999 (Guide). This Guide is the 
result of collaboration by a number of immunization registry developers 
who acknowledge the value of standardized data exchange and are ready 
to implement data exchange among registries. The Guide defines registry 
specific messages in detail, showing a range of fully valued messages 
that carry a complete complement of immunization data. The Guide also 
defines a ``minimum standard message'' that could be implemented by a 
non-clinical system to communicate with a registry. A minimum amount of 
data could be saved to a file in a standard HL7 format, creating a 
batch of updates for the provider to send to the registry on a periodic 
basis. The minimum message consists of core demographic and vaccine 
event data elements plus values for additional HL7-required fields. 
These are defined and examples provided in the Guide.
    Differences in interpretations, acceptable codes, and definitions 
have been resolved by consensus. Registries agree that all will benefit 
if they adhere to one national standard implementation guide that can 
be available to both registries and software vendors of provider 
systems. One vendor explained that, with one national implementation, 
vendors would be more ready to incorporate it into the clinical or 
computer-based patient record systems they were building or upgrading. 
Another vendor advised that, even though his product was strictly a 
billing system, he believed it would be possible to extract the needed 
data and save it to a file as services were performed in the clinic. 
That file could be forwarded to the registry, eliminating the need for 
redundant data entry. A standard implementation allows vendors to 
assure their customers of compatibility among all participating 
systems. Just as importantly, implementing a national standard that is 
already in use in a large number of healthcare systems can save time 
and money for all involved parties.

The Future

    Continuing collaboration to ensure that implementation plans meet 
messaging requirements will enable registry developers, vaccination 
providers, and vendors of physician systems to achieve interoperability 
not previously possible. The core data set, current vaccine and vaccine 
manufacturers' code sets, and the HL7 immunization messaging

[[Page 12525]]

implementation guide are available on the NIP website at www.cdc.gov/nip/registry.

Matters To Be Discussed:

    Agenda items include:

<bullet> Introduction to Registries
<bullet> Introduction to CIRSET and immunization data exchange
    --Why registries need standards
    --Which registries are participating
    --What was done historically
    --Status of standards and HL7
<bullet> Needs of Immunization Registries
<bullet> CDC's Role--Guidelines and Coordination
<bullet> Vendor Opportunities
<bullet> Open Discussion of Solutions and Problems
<bullet> Next Steps

    Agenda items are subject to change as priorities dictate.
    Contact Person for More Information: Susan Abernathy or Julie 
Gamez, Program Analysts, Systems Development Branch, Data Management 
Division, National Immunization Program, CDC, 1600 Clifton Road, NE, M/
S E-62, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, telephone 404/639-8245, fax 404/639-
8171.
    The Director, Management Analysis and Services office has been 
delegated the authority to sign Federal Register notices pertaining to 
announcements of meetings and other committee management activities, 
for both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency 
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

    Dated: February 21, 2001.
John Burckhardt,
Acting Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 01-4720 Filed 2-26-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P