Progress in development of immunization registries--United States, 1999

Community-based and state-based immunization registries are confidential, population-based, computerized information systems that contain data about children's vaccinations and represent an important tool to increase and sustain high vaccination coverage. Immunization registries consolidate vaccination records for children from multiple providers, provide a vaccination needs assessment for each child, generate reminder and recall vaccination notices, produce an official vaccination record, and provide practice-specific and community-based vaccination coverage assessments. One of the Healthy People 2010 national objectives is to increase to 95% the proportion of children aged <6 years who are enrolled in a fully operational population-based immunization registry. To assess the status of immunization registry development, CDC analyzed data from the 1999 Immunization Registry Annual Report (IRAR) of 64 jurisdictions (grantees) that receive federal immunization funds under section 317d of the Public Health Service Act. Findings from this analysis indicate that substantial progress has been made in the United States in developing and implementing community-based and state-based immunization registries.