Data Exchange Rules—One Size May Not Fit All

Background:
2008 was a year of significant change for the New York State Immunization Information System (NYSIIS). New York State (NYS) made modifications to the Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR) and made the new web-based system available to providers. This coincided with legislation requiring NYS providers to report immunizations administered to anyone less than 19 years of age. NYSIIS allows providers to report by direct manual data entry or through file exchange (HL7 or ASCII). The legislation also requires NYS Vital Records to share all birth records with NYSIIS (including historical records back to 2004) and allows for the exchange of information between NYSIIS and the New York Citywide Immunization Registry (NYCIR).
In the past year, the data exchange module has been used to:
- Migrate regional registry data into NYSIIS (1 million patients and 12 million shots);
- Load 4 years of historical birth records (480,000 births);
- Load data from NYCIR (160,000 patients and 1 million shots); and
- Conduct daily data exchange from individual providers using electronic medical record (EMR) systems.
As these data exchange processes were conducted, specific issues arose with each partner that necessitated different approaches and solutions.

Setting:
New York State

Population:
Individuals less than 19 years of age receiving immunization in NYS.

Project Description:
This presentation will review the parties that NYSIIS worked with to achieve successful data exchange. The specific characteristics of each partner impacts the reliability of the data and the system requirements to accept the data.

Results/Lessons Learned:
Attendees will gain an understanding of:
- How data exchange rules may vary depending on the partner
- The overall impact of altering data exchange rules on the system
- The NYS approach to accommodating individual data exchange modifications and the impact of these modifications on other data exchange partners