Education
Subscribe to RSS FeedsUC Davis' CHeQ program awards contract to better manage state's electronic immunization records
The California Health eQuality (CHeQ) program, managed by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), has awarded a $417,011 contract to Scientific Technologies Corporation (STC), a population health informatics service company based in Tucson, Ariz.. STC, in collaboration with CHeQ and the California Department of Public Health, will develop an immunization “gateway” that allows health-care providers throughout most of California to electronically submit patient immunization records for routing to state regional immunization registries and ultimately will enable secure access by doctors, schools, day-care centers and parents who need the information.
“Developing an immunization gateway is a big step toward reaching our goal of making complete and accurate immunization information available to parents, patients, schools, day care centers and health-care providers,” explained Kenneth W. Kizer, IPHI’s director. “Having this information readily accessible will assist public-health workers in their efforts to prevent many infectious diseases and should especially help parents and school officials stay on top of their children’s’ need for shots.”
The CHeQ program is leading California’s efforts to facilitate the rapid flow of health information among physicians’ offices, hospitals and other health-care providers. Through this initiative, IPHI is collaborating with the California Health and Human Services Agency to develop and implement health information exchange programs throughout California according to the state’s Cooperative Grant Agreement with the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The web-based immunization gateway will increase the capacity for receiving patient immunization records from a large number of health-care providers and fulfill Stage 1 requirements for federal meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) technology. The immunization gateway will focus on processing data for seven of the state’s 10 regional immunization registries, which include the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Coast, Central Valley, Greater Sacramento, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Northern California and Orange County. The remaining San Diego, San Joaquin and Imperial counties use different systems and are not included in the scope of this project.
Scientific Technologies Corporation will provide planning, design, development, testing and implementation services on the gateway project, which is expected to launch in April 2013. For more information, visit the Scientific Technologies Corporation website at www.stchome.com.
The UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement is working to align the many determinants of health to promote and sustain the well-being of both individuals and their communities. Established in 2011, the institute is leading a wide array of initiatives, from improving health-care quality and health information exchange to advancing surveillance and prevention programs for heart disease and cancer.
