 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Ayesha E Gill, PhD, California Dept of Health Services, Immunization Branch, 22151 Berkeley Way, Room 712, Berkeley, CA 94704, 510 540 3452, agill1@dhs.ca.gov, Liz Coe, MS, Consultant, 766 Gailen Court, Palo Alto, CA 94303, and Susan Salkowitz, MGA, Salkowitz Associates, LLC, 3233 W. Penn St, Philadelphia, PA 19129-1017.
Background: A goal of Healthy People 2010 is to increase to 95% the children under 6 years old with records in an immunization registry. Registries help raise immunization rates by providing rapid access to complete immunization records. Regional registries were established in more populous areas of California first. A gap exists in the rural north, where a regional registry is now being developed, utilizing the experience of the existing regions and focusing on the specific conditions of these geographically large, sparsely populated counties.
Goal: To describe a process for providing access to a public health tool in a remote rural area.
Method: Describe challenges, resources, and the collaborative process to form the regional registry. Challenges: promoting local leadership, interaction among private and public partners at all jurisdictional levels; geographical and fiscal constraints. Major resources: participants’ enthusiastic input; effective models; software and support from the state. Process: counties meet, discuss, develop regional charter, legal agreements, funding plans.
Results: A public/private coalition is planning the northern rural region, which will complete a system to provide registry access for all California’s children.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe organizational process to develop a vital public health tool. 2. Identify issues involved in deploying registries across autonomous political jurisdictions and great geographic distances. 3. Assess role of the state public health department.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.