KEYWORDS:
vaccine procurement, vaccine formulary selection, operations research, vaccine selection algorithm, software, internet, web

BACKGROUND:
A vaccine formulary selection algorithm, using integer programming operations research tools, was developed to meet the challenge of procuring vaccines among an increasing array of new monovalent and combination vaccines with overlapping, non-complementary antigens.

OBJECTIVE(S):
To provide a web-based internet tool to permit health care industry professionals to run the vaccine selection algorithm to determine the best-value formularies of vaccines to procure.

METHOD(S):
The underlying mathematical model is structured to fully satisfy the United States Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule. The software consists of a customized solution engine written in C, a set of ASP.NET server-based scripts that interact with the user through standard web browsers, and C++ code that integrates the solution engine and the server-based scripts.

RESULT(S):
The web-based vaccine formulary selection algorithm is available at www.vaccineselection.com. It can be used by health care professionals to identify lowest-cost vaccine formularies for pediatric immunization. Users can insert new vaccines not already in the existing vaccines table, and may run “what if” scenarios with the addition and/or deletion of particular vaccines to compete. Users can also revise default settings for the costs of each injection, vaccine preparation, and immunization visit before calculating the total cost of vaccination.

CONCLUSIONS(S):
The web-based vaccine formulary selection algorithm provides a convenient, user-friendly tool for economic analysis by vaccine purchasers and immunization providers.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
See how a typical internet user might run the vaccine selection algorithm and utilize its various options and features.