Monitoring the COVID-19 immunisation programme through a national immunisation Management system - England's experience

Elise Tessier; Michael Edelstein; Camille Tsang; Freja Kirsebom; Charlotte Gower; Colin N J Campbell; Mary Ramsay; Joanne White; Nick Andrews; Jamie Lopez-Bernal; Julia Stowe

doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104974

Monitoring the COVID-19 immunisation programme through a national immunisation Management system - England's experience

Int J Med Inform. 2023 Feb:170:104974. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2022.104974. Epub 2022 Dec 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Elise.Tessier@ukhsa.gov.uk.
² Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel. Electronic address: michael.edelstein@biu.ac.il.
³ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Camille.Tsang@ukhsa.gov.uk.
⁴ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Freja.Kirsebom@ukhsa.gov.uk.
⁵ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Charlotte.Gower@ukhsa.gov.uk.
⁶ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Colin.NJ.Campbell@ukhsa.gov.uk.
⁷ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Mary.Ramsay@ukhsa.gov.uk.
⁸ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: joannemshivji@gmail.com.
⁹ Faculty of Medicine, Bar Ilan University, Safed, Israel. Electronic address: Nick.Andrews@ukhsa.gov.uk.
¹⁰ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Jamie.LopezBernal2@ukhsa.gov.uk.
¹¹ UK Health Security Agency, 61 Colindale Avenue, London, NW9 5EQ UK. Electronic address: Julia.Stowe@ukhsa.gov.uk.

Abstract

Background: In England routine vaccinations are recorded in either the patients General Practice record or in series of sub-national vaccine registers that are not interoperable. During the COVID-19 pandemic it was established that COVID vaccines would need to be delivered in multiple settings where current vaccine registers do not exist. We describe how a national vaccine register was created to collect data on COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods: The National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) was developed by a range of health and digital government agencies. Vaccinations delivered are entered on an application which is verified by individual National Health Service number in a centralised system. UKHSA receive a feed of this data to use for monitoring vaccine coverage, effectiveness, and safety. To validate the vaccination data, we compared vaccine records to self-reported vaccination dose, manufacturer, and vaccination date from the enhanced surveillance system from 11 February 2021 to 24 August 2021.

Results: With the Implementation of NIMS, we have been able to successfully record COVID-19 vaccinations delivered in multiple settings. Of 1,129 individuals, 97.8% were recorded in NIMS as unvaccinated compared to those who self-reported as unvaccinated. One hundred percent and 99.3% of individuals recorded in NIMS as having at least one dose and two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were also self-reported as having at least one and two doses, respectively. Of the 100% reporting at least one dose, 98.3% self-reported the same vaccination date as NIMS. A total of 98.8% and 99.3% had the same manufacturer information for their first dose and second dose as that which was self-reported, respectively.

Discussion: Daily access to individual-level vaccine data from NIMS has allowed UKHSA to estimate vaccine coverage and provide some of the world's first vaccine effectiveness estimates rapidly and accurately.

Keywords: COVID-19; Immunisation(s); Vaccine coverage; Vaccine registry; Vaccine uptake; Vaccine(s).

MeSH terms

COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Humans
Immunization Programs
Pandemics
Registries
State Medicine
Vaccination
Vaccines*

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines
Vaccines