Vaccine Stakeholder Involvement In the National Vaccine Plan: How Involvement and Deliberation of Stakeholders Can Help Inform and Influence Vaccine Policy

Background: Over the past three years the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) has led a coordinated effort to develop an updated National Vaccine Plan.   This Plan will be released in early 2011 and serves as a roadmap for the US immunization enterprise over the next decade.  An important component of this work has been engagement of many stakeholders in developing the Plan.

Setting: In developing the Plan, relevant Federal agencies identified key objectives and strategies as pathways to success for each of the five goals.

Population: The Department consulted with the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC), other Federal agencies, stakeholder organizations and the public regularly.   Stakeholders included: state and local public health officials, vaccine manufacturers, academia, advocacy organizations, philanthropic groups, health care providers, and the public.

Project Description: Comments gathered by the Institute of Medicine at five public meetings; interviews with the National Vaccine Advisory Committee; meetings with international and domestic stakeholders; and input from the public collected through both public meetings and in response to public comment.

Results/Lessons Learned: Since 2004 the NVPO has supported public and stakeholder engagement.  In 2011, NVPO will be leveraging existing HHS partnerships and networks and testing new web-based technologies to support implementation of the National Vaccine Plan.    Building on a model used for the National Prevention Strategy, the focus will be on regional stakeholder forums.  The focus of these discussions will be exploring ways to ensure that the Plan becomes a National strategy and not just a Federal plan.   If successful, this may be an effective model for ensuring sustained local stakeholder engagement in National vaccine issues moving forward.