Initial Assessment of the Automation Status of States in Terms of Data Exchange During Pandemic Influenza

Background: The automation capability in terms of exchanging vaccine doses administered data will be critical during pandemic influenza when large volume of data are expected to be transmitted to CDC in a weekly basis. Method: Data from the nationwide 2008 Vaccine Doses Administered Exercise (DAX2008) and Pilot 2007 were analyzed and a scoring scale developed to indicate where each state stand in the automation. A state that used automation at the point of service all the way to the (data) transmission to CDC received the highest scoring. A state that used the manual method to collect and aggregate data received the lowest score. All other states fell in between this continuum. Results: Initial analysis of data indicates that 19% of states received the highest in the scoring scale and  25% of states received the lowest in the scale. Further analysis is on going.   Conclusions:  This initial assessment offers valuable information on state’s IT infrastructure and its automation capability. While automation is more developed in some states the majority are not as far along. This assessment will be expanded using data from the H1N1 vaccine for the novel influenza.