Innovation and immunization program management: traceability and quality in Latin America and the Caribbean, laying the groundwork for a regional action plan

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE by its Spanish acronyms) is working to understand the current situation, gaps, and opportunities for traceability of the quality vaccination process in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Areas covered

On September 24th and 25th, a Latin American forum of experts in immunization programs was held through the Zoom platform; the topics discussed included: computerized systems for recording immunizations, vaccination programs traceability, challenges, and information systems for the integrated management of vaccination.

Expert opinion

Latin American countries have transitioned from having a nominal registration system to a nominal tracking system, with many of them not migrating their platforms to new technologies; therefore, the low-quality data, fragmented databases, and slow information traffic present a challenge that must be taken on.

KEYWORDS:

• Computerized systems
• immunization programs
• Latin America
• traceability
• COVID-19

Article highlights

• Despite the considerable effort made by each country during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in the region through the deployment of the vaccination campaign, several challenges must be faced, including the revitalization of the immunization programs. Therefore, the following are crucial:

• To have economic resources (multi-year budget) for investment in technology, connectivity (throughout the territory), human resources in a sustained way, and a public policy that promotes the adoption of legislation necessary for those involved.

• Governance plays a key role, and the resolutions that have been recently approved will allow both, the revitalization and the digital transformation of the immunization programs in the region.

• The requirement for each country to review its legislation to share data across borders to achieve conjunction between the certifying agency and the immunization registry.

• The trust of Latin American citizens in health authorities has declined considerably over the last decade, making it necessary to strengthen healthcare transparency using open data.

• Information and communication systems continue to enable active surveillance, which results in improved monitoring, vaccination reticence, etc.

Conference details

Title: Innovation and immunization programme management: traceability and quality in Latin America and the Caribbean, laying the groundwork for a regional action plan.

Date: September 24 and 25th, 2021

Location: Through the Zoom platform directed by Dr. Pablo Tregnaghi, from the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectology (SLIPE, for its acronym in Spanish)

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Academic Committee of Computerized Medicine of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (SLIPE) for the support provided for the development of this article and the execution of the expert meeting.

Author contributions

All authors have substantially contributed to the conception and design of the review article and interpreting the relevant literature and have been involved in writing the review article or revised it for intellectual content.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.