Case Study: Timely Vaccination

Vaccine schedules are designed to be given at certain ages and specific time intervals. Vaccination records and reminders play an important role in ensuring vaccines are delivered in a timely manner.

Below are examples of systems and policies that are used to maintain records, generate reminders and ensure vaccination:

Immunisation reminders

Notifications sent to parents when their children are due for immunisation are used in many parts of the world. With the wide-spread use of mobile technology messages sent by text message or email are more efficient than paper based reminders. Mobile phone based applications have been developed to help individuals maintain their own vaccine records and generate reminders when vaccines are due.

The following videos are examples of mobile phone based technologies used in Canada and India.

Immunisation Information Systems

Computerised immunisation information systems can be used to record individual immunisation information. These systems can be used to track individual vaccination pathways in order to generate reminders and to identify individuals who have not been vaccinated.

In England (UK) the Child Health Information Services (CHIS) are an NHS commissioned service which maintains clinical care records for all children in the country up to the age of 19 (or 25 if they have educational needs) and contains information on all public health interventions including immunisation. The information contained in CHIS can also be used to establish vaccination uptake and coverage at a population level.

Mandatory vaccination

In some countries childhood vaccinations are mandatory. For example in France, vaccination against diphtheria and polio has been mandatory for decades. In 2018 the mandate was extended to include vaccination against 10 different infections for children up to 2 years of age.

In the United States some states mandate vaccination to attend public schools.

In Australia, state welfare payments such as child care subsidy and family tax benefit are linked to immunisation records.