Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 10:55 AM
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Advantages of VAERS Electronic Reporting: Positive Impact on Data Quality and Completeness

BACKGROUND:
In March 2002, the National Immunization Program (NIP) developed the capability for submitting VAERS reports via the internet. Not only has electronic web-based reporting to VAERS provided an alternate method for reporting, it has decreased (1) the time between the occurrence of an adverse event and its reporting (reporting interval) and (2) the completeness of reports submitted. This, in turn, allows for increased timely detection of new or rare events.

OBJECTIVE:
To monitor reporting patterns, timeliness and report completeness.

METHOD:
All web-based and non-web-based reports received between 3/25/02 and 12/31/03 were analyzed. Proportional comparisons were made for "severity level," "onset interval," "age group," "gender," "report interval," "timeliness," "completeness of reports," and the top most frequently reported adverse events.

RESULT:
A total of 3,317, or over 11% of all VAERS reports submitted within the defined time frame were web-based reports. Differences in reporting pattersn for web-based versus other submission methods were noted with a higher proportion of web-based reports received for certain categories as described above. Overall, a higher percent of completeness was observed for web-based reports.

CONCLUSION:
Results demonstrate that electronic web-based reporting improves the timeliness and completeness of VAERS reports whicd consequently improves the overall quality of the data. The increased quality and completeness of reports submitted to VAERS via web-based reporting methods may be an indicator of an expected advantage to submitting reports via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) methods, such as those used by immunization information systems (IIS).

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The participant will be able to (1) identify the advantages of VAERS electronic, web-based reporting method, and (2)discuss applicability of results to IIS.


Web Page: www.vaers.org

  Recorded presentation

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