Direct and Electronic Health Record Access to the Clinical Decision Support for Immunizations in the Minnesota Immunization Information System

Immunization information systems (IIS) are population-based and confidential computerized systems maintained by public health agencies containing individual data on immunizations from participating health care providers. IIS hold comprehensive vaccination histories given across providers and over time. An important aspect to IIS is the clinical decision support for immunizations (CDSi), consisting of vaccine forecasting algorithms to determine needed immunizations. The study objective was to analyze the CDSi presentation by IIS in Minnesota (Minnesota Immunization Information Connection [MIIC]) through direct access by IIS interface and by access through electronic health records (EHRs) to outline similarities and differences. The immunization data presented were similar across the three systems examined, but with varying ability to integrate data across MIIC and EHR, which impacts immunization data reconciliation. Study findings will lead to better understanding of immunization data display, clinical decision support, and user functionalities with the ultimate goal of promoting IIS CDSi to improve vaccination rates.