Vaccination against influenza is important in pregnancy for the health of both mother and unborn baby. Influenza introduces risks to pregnancy and to the baby who relies on maternal antibodies for protection. Because the data associated with pregnancy is fragmented across multiple providers of health care, it is challenging to conduct pregnancy-related public health surveillance using a single data source. We report the integration of a novel ontological approach to identifying pregnancies in routine data with a web-based dashboard that feeds back information to general practices in a sentinel network. As a result, practices receive information about how well they are performing influenza vaccination in pregnancy in near-real-time.
Keywords: Electronic Health Records; Pregnancy; Vaccines.