Summer has arrived!
With the passing of Memorial Day, for many this means the end of another school year and time to enjoy warmer weather. For AIRA, this is a time to reflect on previous events and prepare for events to come.
Reflecting on May
It’s not possible to reflect on May without pausing to celebrate the AIRA 2023 National Meeting, which broke all previous attendance records and was filled with joyful reunions and introductions. And right after #AIRA2023, the National Adult and Influenza Immunization Summit (NAIIS) was held May 9–11 in Atlanta, Georgia. The NAIIS is a multi-sector coalition of organizations working toward increasing uptake of ACIP-recommended adult vaccines and influenza vaccines for all ages. Over 130 public and private organizations participate in NAIIS initiatives. This year’s keynote featured Dr. Jose Romero, the director of the National Center for Infections and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and highlighted the Immunization Landscape: Lessons Learned and Our Focus. Additional topics that were addressed throughout the meeting included federal adult vaccine policy, vaccine communication and messaging, partnering with community-based organizations, vaccine equity, IIS infrastructure, and the vaccine development pipeline. A link to the agenda and presentations can be found here.
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) held an inaugural hybrid Public Health TechXpo May 23–25 in Chicago, Illinois. The TechXpo is an annual convening of public health leaders and experts across the technology, professional services, financial, workforce, and related sectors. The opening plenary, Transforming Our Nation’s Health Infrastructure: A Conversation with Federal Health Leaders, featured a discussion on the current opportunities to advance and modernize the public health workforce and data systems. Many of the sessions were focused on the public health workforce, data modernization, and health equity. The meeting concluded with a call to action regarding the powerful opportunity for public health to emerge stronger and more resilient in the years to come.
Prior to the TechXpo kickoff, ASTHO hosted the IDEAS Learning Community Workshop with the ONC Ideas project awardees and TA partners to discuss current and future projects. As part of the state-specific project, ASTHO published Immunization Information Systems and Health Information Exchanges and Legal Landscape of Public Health Data; providing health, data, technology, and policy leaders with context and considerations for enhancing data sharing to advance population health.
Looking forward
If you were unable to attend the AIRA 2023 National Meeting or sit in on all the presentations you had hoped to, don’t fret! The #AIRA2023 presentation slides are now available. You can search for a topic of interest in the AIRA repository or use the meeting agenda to easily navigate to your desired presentation. We hope you spend some time reviewing all the great content.
During these summer months, the Immunization Integration Program (IIP) is hard at work converting the IIP test plan into a modular format, and through the IIP Collaborative, it is recruiting partners to collaborate with on pre-submission data validation. To work with the IIP team, email Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser..
Mark your calendars. The first in-person AIRA Regional Workshop since 2020 is coming up July 11–12, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. AIRA is providing colleagues from jurisdictions in the Midwest (AIRA Region 3) with the opportunity to hear from national experts on the latest IIS developments and engage in interactive sessions and collaborative discussions. There is limited space for attendees from outside Region 3. If you are interested in attending or have any questions regarding the workshop, please reach out to Courtnay Londo at Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. by Friday, June 9. And last but not least, register and join us on June 26 for our next Discovery Session and learn about how other jurisdictions are using IIS data to address health equity.
We will keep you posted with more of our summer events as information becomes available.
I hope you are able to spend some time with your family enjoying this warm weather.
Rebecca Coyle, MSEd
Executive Director