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AIRA 2018: Is Open Source the Key to IIS Sustainability?

by Noam Arzton August 20, 2018

Noam Arzt and Bill Brand engage in a “fireside chat”

On August 14-16, 2018 the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) held its 2018 National Meeting. This meeting brought together more than 350 informatics professionals, public health officials, EHR vendors, and other stakeholders who all care passionately about Immunization Information Systems (IIS) and their role in the healthcare community. IIS projects leverage interoperability with EHRs, PHRs, and other systems to promote clinical practice at the point of care; enable public health surveillance; and reduce cost by assisting in preventing both under and over immunization.Read More→

Noam Arzt awarded AIRA 2018 Volunteer Service Award

by Noam Arzton August 17, 2018

On August 15, 2018 Dr. Noam Arzt, President of HLN, was awarded the 2018 Volunteer Service Award by the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA).

In her presentation, Rebecca Coyle, Executive Director of AIRA, said that, “Noam Arzt has been nominated and selected for this award for his service as an AIRA volunteer in the IIS community. Since AIRA’s founding in 2012, he has served on 14 committees or workgroups, including the Technical committee, the Urban/Cities Committee, and the Data Exchange Steering Committee and currently serves o the SISC, ESC, and JDI Advisory Workgroup. Noam’s passion and commitment to the IIS community and to public health are also reflected in the open source release of Immunization Calculation Engine (ICE) and a data quality tool developed by HLN.”

HLN releases Version 1.14.1 of its Award Winning Open Source Immunization Forecaster

by Noam Arzton August 12, 2018

On August 10, 2018, HLN released a new version (v1.14.1) of the Immunization Calculation Engine (ICE). ICE is a state-of-the-art open-source software system that provides clinical decision support for immunizations for use in Immunization Information Systems (IIS), Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Personal Health Record (PHR) Systems.

The release completes support for Earliest Date and Overdue Date for all vaccine series in ICE’s default schedule. If enabled, ICE will output two additional forecast dates along with the Recommendation Date: the Earliest Date and Overdue Date. The Earliest Date is the soonest date that the vaccine can be given and still be considered valid. The Overdue Date is the date after which an immunization administered would be considered late. Completing support for Earliest Date/Overdue Date is an important milestone for ICE. HLN will be presenting this new version this week at the annual meeting of the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) and week of August 20 at the CDC Public Health Informatics Conference.

The latest ICE Implementation Guide (v2r20) describes how implementers should update their installation and software to properly read the Earliest, Recommended, and Overdue dates. The relevant information starts on page 43. Note that a “track changes” version of this same guide is also available. The tracked changes are intended to make it easier for the reader to see what has changed in the Guide since the prior release of the ICE Implementation Guide (v2r18).

The full software release is available for download at https://cdsframework.atlassian.net/wiki/display/ICE/Downloads.

HLN Presenting at Upcoming Healthcare Meetings

by Noam Arzton July 16, 2018

Over the next several months HLN will be attending a number of important healthcare and public health meetings and events and presenting our work and perspectives. Events and presentations include:

2018 OSEHRA Open Source Summit (July 18-20): HLN will be joining colleagues on the Immunization Working Group for an update of the groups activities, including an update about HLN’s ICE Open Source Immunization Evaluation and Forecasting System (7/18, Afternoon Session II, 2:30pm ET).

American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) 2018 National Meeting (August 14-16): As a gold sponsor of the meeting, HLN shows its strong commitment to the Immunization Information System (IIS) community. We will deliver several presentations during this conference, including:

Strategies for Evaluating and Integrating SmartyStreets (Session 1B, 8/14, 1pm MT)
IIS Platform or Module Migration – Is Your Program Prepared? [with CDC, AIRA & PHII] (Session 2B, 8/14, 2:30pm MT)
CAIR2 Patient Matching: Solving the 25 Million Piece Puzzle [with CA and DXC] Session 3A, 8/15, 9:15am MT)
IIS Past, Present, and Future: A Conversation and a Discussion [with PHII] (Session 4E, 8/15, 11am MT)
Comparative Analysis of AFIX-IIS Tools [with CA] (Session 5D, 8/15, 1pm MT)
Cloud-Based Solutions: A Good Option for Hosting CDS for Immunizations (Session 5D, 8/15, 1pm MT)
Vaccines For Children (VFC)-IIS Integration Strategy [with CA] (Session 6E, 8/15, 2pm MT)
ICE: An Open Source Option for Immunization Forecasting (Session 7D, 8/16, 11am MT)
Hearing from Everyone: Diverse Perspectives to Improve Oregon School Immunization Reporting [with OR] (Session 8C, 8/16, 9:45am MT)

HLN will also have an exhibitor booth at the meeting.

2018 Public Health Informatics (PHI) Conference (August 19-23): HLN will have an even greater presence at this bi-annual CDC-sponsored conference including delivery of the following presentations:

Case Study for Cloud Computing Solutions in Public Health: Clinical Decision Support (Session E03, 8/21, 4:15pm ET)
Reportable Conditions Knowledge Management System (RCKMS): Developing Quality Decision Support in the Data Supply Chain for Public Health Surveillance [with CSTE] Session B01, 8/21, 10:30am ET)
A Collaborative Approach to Supporting Information System Migration Projects [with CDC, AIRA, & PHII] (Session G01, 8/22, 1:30pm ET)
Clinical Decision Support for Immunizations as a Community-drive, Standards-based Activity [with CDC & NYC] (Session H04, 8/22, 3pm ET)
Developing a Data Integration and Management System: Improving New York City’s Population Health Research and Surveillance [with NYC] (Session H07, 8/22, 3pm ET)
The Changing Face of Interoperability and its Impact on Public Health (Session K11, 8/23, 9:15am ET)

In addition to being an exhibitor at the conference, HLN will demonstrate some of its Open Source software as part of a HIMSS Interoperability Showcase that accompanies this event:

Immunization Use Case – ICE Immunization Evaluation and Forecasting System
Electronic Case Reporting Use Case – Reportable Conditions Knowledge Management System (RCKMS)

Health Level 7 (HL7) 32^nd Annual Plenary and Working Group Meeting (9/29-10/5): HLN will attend this important gathering, including demonstrating our Open Source products at the FHIR Connectathon that takes place in conjunction with the meeting.

Approaches for IIS-HIE Collaboration

by Noam Arzton December 29, 2017

We have written in a previous policy white paper about collaboration between Immunization Information System (IIS) projects and Health Information Exchange (HIE) networks, and a second more technical white paper about options for interoperability between IIS and electronic health record (EHR) systems. We described a range of interoperability options for EHR users and IIS and the strengths and challenges of each alternative: