November 6, 2017

UPCOMING EVENTS

CDC COCA Call – What’s New for the 2017–2018 Flu Season: Recommendations for Children November 7, 2017, 2 pm ET)

Influenza remains a serious threat to child morbidity and mortality. More than 100 flu-associated deaths in children during the 2016–2017 influenza season were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Clinicians play a critical role in taking action to immunize children, children’s family members, caregivers, and themselves. The early use of antiviral drugs in children can reduce the duration of symptoms, and prevent serious complications of influenza. However, immunization remains the most effective way to prevent influenza illness and its complications.

During this COCA call, subject matter experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and CDC will highlight critical information about this year’s flu season, and discuss strategies primary care providers and medical subspecialists can use to improve flu prevention and control in children.

NFID Webinar – Updates from October 2017 ACIP Meeting (November 9, 2017 at 12 pm ET)

William Schaffner, MD, NFID Medical Director and liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and Amanda C. Cohn, MD, MPH, ACIP Executive Secretary, will discuss updates from the October 2017 ACIP meeting, including current vaccination recommendations for adults, adolescents, and children.

Smithsonian Magazine Livestream – The Next Pandemic: Are We Prepared? (November 13, 2017 at 2 pm ET)

As the 100th anniversary of the 1918 flu nears, Smithsonian magazine, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Museum of Natural History, is hosting a special event, The Next Pandemic: Are We Prepared?

An exclusive group of thought leaders will gather at the museum to discuss how the world prepares for the next global pandemic, raises public awareness, and explores potential responses and solutions.

NFID Webinar – Be Antibiotics Aware: Smart Use, Best Care (November 14, 2017 at 12 pm ET)

As interest continues to percolate regarding the relationship between immunizations and antimicrobial resistance, this webinar is worth a look from Summit partners.

Lauri A. Hicks, DO (CAPT, USPHS), Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, and Medical Director, Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will provide an update on trends in antibiotic use in human healthcare and discuss national efforts to improve antibiotic use. The webinar will highlight a new CDC educational effort to improve antibiotic use, including new resources and educational materials.

Avalere Health Webinar – Increasing Adult Immunization Rates in the US Through Data and Quality: A Roadmap (November 16, 2017 at 11 am ET)

Immunization was one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th Century. Despite the promise new vaccines hold to further reduce vaccine-preventable disease, improving adult immunization rates remains a persistent challenge. As our nation’s healthcare system continues its shift from volume to value, harnessing new opportunities focused on improving healthcare quality can serve as an important vehicle toward increasing adult immunization uptake.

Join a webinar co-hosted by Avalere and GlaxoSmithKline to hear experts discuss how both immunization and quality stakeholders can help advance strategies that leverage healthcare quality to increase adult immunization uptake. A roadmap for success will be discussed that includes strategies aimed to:

enhance immunization data reporting infrastructure and policies;
advance immunization quality measurement and improvement;
discuss the role that industry, professional societies, payers, patient groups, and federal partners can play in such strategic collaborations; and
generate and disseminate immunization information

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Improving Adolescent Immunization Coverage: The Time to Act is Now!

The Unity Consortium has authored an article titled Improving Adolescent Immunization Coverage: The Time to Act is Now. (The article is available free until December 9, 2017.) The commentary in the Journal of Adolescent Health highlights Unity’s INSPECT criteria to increasing adolescent immunization coverage rates, features discussion regarding the recently interest in a 16-year old immunization platform, and highlights a recent white paper from Unity on adolescent immunization.

American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) Issues Guidance on Consolidating Immunization Records

The guide presents best practice recommendations for a fundamental function of the immunization information system (IIS)—consolidating information from various sources. Consolidating information about the patient or vaccination event from different sources, as well as information from multiple reports by the same source, leads to a more accurate and complete reflection of reality in the IIS.

This important tool will facilitate deduplication and consolidation of immunization records as well as provide best practice recommendations to support IIS staff to implement and sustain the consolidating records functionality.

An archived webinar describing the guidance is available online.

AAFP Webcast: Benefits of the Influenza Vaccine for Adults 65 and Older

This webcast, presented by family physician Thomas Koinis, M.D., will provide family physicians updated information on influenza vaccines and prepare them to boost immunization rates within their practice.

At the conclusion of the webcast, participants should be able to:

Review primary updates to the current influenza guidance and recommendations.
Establish consistent team-based messaging about the vaccine.
Better understand how to bill and code for vaccinations.
Identify and address knowledge gaps in vaccine choices for all age groups.
Dispel existing myths and misconceptions surrounding the influenza vaccine.

INFORMATION FROM CDC

CDC Influenza Surveillance Report

CDC has released the Influenza Division Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report for Week 43, ending October 28, 2017. The agency also has released talking points on seasonal influenza, influenza variant, and the Master Key Point document for the 2017–2018 influenza season.

In a new feature on FluView Interactive, state/jurisdiction level ILI and virologic data are now shown for areas that have given CDC approval to display their data.

Summit’s Influenza Vaccine Availability Tracking System (IVATS) is Live for the 2017–2018 season

IVATS serves as a resource for healthcare settings wishing to purchase influenza vaccine. IVATS contains information from approved, enrolled, and participating wholesale vaccine distributors or manufacturers of U.S. licensed influenza vaccine. Ongoing updates will be made throughout the 2017–2018 influenza vaccination season.

OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST

Now online! Vaccinate Adults, the final issue

After publishing 52 issues since 1997, IAC has now placed online the final edition (November 2017) of Vaccinate Adults. The lead story, “20 Years Later–the Final Issue of Vaccinate Adults,” by Dr. Deborah Wexler, reviews the 20-year history of Vaccinate Adults—how it began, how it grew over the years, and what’s next.

The final issue also features the highly popular “Ask the Experts” column, focused on influenza, with questions answered by experts from CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

You’ll also find one-page CDC-reviewed patient handouts for adults and pregnant women, newly translated in seven languages.

Penn Study Pinpoints Why Last Year’s Flu Shot Was a Dud

Egg adaptation and its impact on the vaccine strains is not new, but here is another article just published on last year’s vaccine.

New research from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine suggests the low efficacy of the 2016–17 flu shot — about 20 to 30 percent effectiveness, compared to an average of about 50-60 percent — was likely the result of a mutation in the H3N2 strain of the virus. An additional story in the Philly Voice is available online.

The Flu Shot During Pregnancy: Safe and Effective

Earlier this fall, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded study found a possible association between influenza vaccine and pregnancy loss. Specifically, this study found that pregnant women who received the influenza vaccine containing the pandemic H1N1 (H1N1pdm09) component and who also had been vaccinated the previous season with an H1N1pdm09-containing flu vaccine had an increased odds ratio of pregnancy loss within the first 28 days following vaccination.

Despite decades of research establishing influenza vaccination as a safe and essential part of prenatal care, the information presented in this study may cause some concern in pregnant women. However, it is important to highlight that even the CDC study authors acknowledge several significant limitations to the study. Furthermore, their own conclusion was that the study does not and cannot establish a causal relationship between repeated influenza vaccination and spontaneous abortion. That is why this flu season, women’s healthcare providers play a particularly vital role in advising pregnant women to receive the influenza vaccination. A Medscape article by Dr. Christopher Zahn provides additional information for providers.

40 Percent of Doctors, Nurses Go to Work with Flu-Like Illness, Survey Finds

As flu season kicks into high gear, a new report is revealing the unhealthy habits of the people entrusted with keeping Americans healthy. According to a survey of nearly 2,000 healthcare professionals, over 40 percent who say they’ve worked while sick actually had the flu as they met patients.

“The statistics are alarming. At least one earlier study has shown that patients who are exposed to a healthcare worker who is sick are five times more likely to get a healthcare-associated infection,” lead author Dr. Sophia Chiu wrote in the survey’s release.

Additional articles about this report are available in SCIENMAG and from CBSChicago.

Methotrexate Hiatus Improved Influenza Vaccine Efficacy in Patients with RA

Discontinuing methotrexate for 2 weeks following vaccination improved the effectiveness of the seasonal influenza vaccine among patients with rheumatoid arthritis without exacerbating disease activity, according to findings presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting.

Three Slide Decks Available to Support New Standards for Adult Immunization Practice

The Summit’s Access and Collaboration workgroup has developed three separate slide decks with talking notes to support partners and others who wish to present on the Standards to their peers and colleagues. The three audiences targeted by the decks are: healthcare providers; patients/public; and public health. These are now available, along with tips and tools on how to use them, at the Summit website.

Also, do not forget that Medscape has produced two modules to support the implementation of the Standards:

Providing a strong recommendation (with video vignettes)
Assessing the patient for adult vaccines.

Every Child By Two (ECBT) Compiles Media Information on Its Website

On a daily basis, ECBT assembles significant news media coverage on immunizations in their “Daily Clips.” Summit partners may find this effort useful.

Summit Website Offers Wonderful Resources on Influenza Vaccination

Remember to visit the Summit website for the latest on influenza immunization resources. You also can find archived copies of The Summit Buzz there.

Reminder

Summit calls are scheduled every Thursday at 3 PM ET, unless cancelled. Please email L.J Tan or LaDora Woods if you have any updates on activities to provide the Summit.

Upcoming Events

Announcements

Information from CDC

Other News Of Interest