New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Bureau of Immunization
2 Lafayette Street
19th Floor
New York,
NY
USA
10007
Email:
ametroka@health.nyc.gov
Biographical Sketch:
Amy Metroka has been the Director of the Citywide Immunization Registry (CIR) of the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) since October 1997. The CIR was established in 1997 when a NYC Health Code Amendment went into effect mandating reporting by health care providers of all immunizations administered to children age seven and younger to DOHMH. Ms. Metroka is responsible for directing of staff of 25 and administering a budget of over $3 million annually. One of the largest and most complex immunization registries in the United States, the CIR currently includes 4 million children and 45 million immunizations. Nearly 3,00 health facilities and private practices, including over
4, 000 medical professionals, participate in the CIR. CIR regularly exchanges data with 17 Managed Care Organizations. The annual birth cohort for NYC is 125,000, and all children born in NYC are enrolled in CIR through a weekly load of electronic birth certificates from the DOHMH Division of Vital Records. Before joining the NYC DOHMH, Ms. Metroka served as the Associate Project Director of the All Kids Count (AKC) Project of the Medical and Health Research Association (MHRA) of NYC, Inc. from January 1992 through September 1997. Her role at the AKC/MHRA project, which was funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the NYC DOHMH, was to assist the DOHMH in a comprehensive planning process for establishing a childhood immunization registry in NYC. This included conducting outreach to parents, providers and health plans to facilitate their participation in the planning process. She also assisted DOHMH in forming the NYC Coalition for Immunization Initiatives, the advisory council to DOHMH for the CIR and the core program components of the DOHMH Bureau of Immunization. This Coalition, which includes representatives of medical professional associations, public and private providers, health plans, child advocacy organizations, and vaccine manufacturers, has been a key partner in establishing and promoting the CIR. Amy Metroka is a founding member of the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA), and served as AIRA president from 2000 - 2003.