The AIRA 2025 National Meeting took place April 28 – May 1 in Spokane, WA and as in years past, the conference did not disappoint. Coming together as a community, though we felt the absence of our federal partners, we relished being together to discuss, debate and lament the current issues and challenges.
With everything going on in public health at the federal and state, territory, local and tribal ( STLT) levels, the overall mood of the National Meeting was expected to be a bit sad and contemplative as participants consider the potential impact of the administrative changes to their programs and organizations and develop mitigation strategies. However, the beauty of Spokane and its attractions – did you see the Radio Flyer wagon slide, the gondolas and the waterfall – helped participants forget the chaos even for just a short while!
In the opening keynote “Ch-Ch-Ch-CH-Changes: The Science of Managing Transitions”, Scott Crabtree from Happy Brain Science provided excerpts from various change management materials and research to describe the emotional journey everyone goes through when dealing with change. Scott identified the emotions in grappling with an “ending.” through a somewhat “neutral zone” in dealing with the change, and considering a new “beginning.”
This description resonated with many participants, considering all the endings and potential new beginnings we are facing at the moment. Learning a bit of the science regarding transition and recognizing that people go through transition at their own pace and in their own way, fostered an environment to talk openly with others about the stage we are in or the feelings we are experiencing. The AIRA reception on Monday night, spilled into the Exhibit Hall, and heightened the vibe of community promoted by the opening keynote. As one of my HLN colleagues commented, “Though it was a different conference [this year] with everything happening, it still felt communal and no one shied away from tough topics and how to get through it together.”
The conference presented a mix of plenary, breakout, and special sessions, including more interactive roundtables and “deep dives” into topics such as IIS modernization, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), and IIS sustainability. IIS sustainability was presented on Day one of the conference in the session “Designing for Tomorrow: A Group Discussion on Developing a Sustainable IIS” and continued in a roundtable session on Day three with input from Noam Arzt, president of HLN, Mary Beth Kurilo and Eric Larson from AIRA, Mary Woinarowicz from North Dakota, and Zachary Kempf from Missouri. Following some introductory remarks and thoughts from each of the panelists, the attendees were asked to draft headlines about what their “future IIS” might look like in the year 2030.
The topic of modernization was highlighted in a presentation by North Dakota regarding their approach to implement a more modern IIS version of their awardee developed platform with a move to the cloud, and more streamlined and automated processes. In this session, HLN also presented our ASTHO data modernization engagement facilitating three site visits in Virginia, Minnesota and Rhode Island. The purpose of the site visits was to convene agency leadership and solicit input on their data modernization organizational structure, challenges and successes. The site visits included a combination of presentations – by both agency staff and HLN – as well as exercises and tools to identify their data modernization strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and determine their critical success factors to progress their efforts. The site visits culminated in a findings and recommendation report to ASTHO to assist other agencies in their data modernization planning and execution.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) also took center stage at the National Meeting with presentations offering various ways to leverage AI in all aspects of IIS. Beginning with a pre-conference session on “Project Management Essentials: Leveraging AI for Efficiency” to the presentation, “Alexa, What Can AI Do for IIS?” that highlighted potential use cases for clinical decision support, these discussions and demonstrations spurred our thinking around AI.
The return to pre-COVID conference attendance (~400) provided ample opportunity for attendees to delve into topics more deeply with a smaller audience. HLN colleagues mentioned this was a positive aspect to the pre-conference session and presentations overall. Following an overview of the topic, the smaller groups were able to delve deeper into the topics with candid and helpful discussions on what others were doing and the successes and challenges experienced.
HLN presented several topics, listed below, at the National Meeting that you might enjoy learning more about. We would welcome hearing your thoughts on these or other presentations you found interesting.
- A Novel Approach to Handle Duplicate Immunizations in the NYC IIS
- Development of Provider Vaccine Coverage and VFC Accountability Dashboards in NYC
- Integrating CDC’s VTrckS API with NYC’s VIM Application
- Approaches to Capturing RSV Immunizations
- Immunization Programs Have a Seat and a Voice at the Data Modernization Table
- Roundtable Session: Data Modernization
As always, the AIRA National Meeting was an engaging and casual forum that enabled us to see old friends, meet new colleagues, say goodbye to retiring partners (Claire and Steve Murchie from Envision Technology Partners, now part of InductiveHealth) and have some fun along the way – did we win Clue?! As a virtual company, we always appreciate being together in person to discuss crucial topics, to share lessons learned and best practices, but even more so, being a part of this smart, resilient and cohesive IIS community.
We returned to our “offices” inspired to plan and strategize next steps in collaboration with our colleagues, clients and community. From HLN’s perspective, the AIRA 2025 National Meeting did not disappoint!