American College of Physicians, CECity, and Pfizer collaborate to increase adult immunization rates

Public health initiative aims to increase unacceptably low adult vaccination rates

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May 15, 2014, 11:27 ET

PHILADELPHIA, May 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American College of Physicians (ACP), CECity, and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) have announced a new initiative designed to increase adult immunization rates by assisting physicians and other health care providers in strongly recommending appropriate vaccination and tracking adult immunization rates for quality measurement and improvement. The three organizations made the announcement during the annual National Adult Influenza and Immunization Summit meeting being held May 13-15 in Atlanta.

The goal of this public health initiative is to meet the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's standards for adult immunization. The standards call on all health care providers to assess vaccine status at each visit, strongly recommend vaccinations to patients, administer or refer for immunization, and document vaccination. Current vaccination rates for recommended vaccines in the U.S. fall far short of those goals, with all rates well below 70 percent and fraught with racial and ethnic disparities.ⁱ

"As a national organization of internists, ACP's internal medicine physician specialists and their practice teams play a critical role in increasing adult immunization rates," said Dr. Robert Centor, Chair of ACP's Board of Regents and a practicing internist. "Recommending and offering appropriate vaccinations is a core component of preventive health care, leading to improved public health, less suffering and fewer deaths from preventable illnesses, and lower health care costs."

The program will encourage health care providers and practice teams to engage in ACP's Adult Immunization Registry available through CECity's MedConcert^® portal, a cloud-based performance improvement platform. With funding from Pfizer and the experience and resources from the three organizations, the program will be piloted in two states with the goal to broaden the effort nationwide.

"Pfizer is working to raise immunization rates to help protect against vaccine preventable diseases," said Freda Lewis-Hall, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer Inc. "By bringing together tremendous expertise in health care, technology and quality improvement, this collaboration can make great strides to address the long-standing public health challenge of vaccinating American adults."

Research shows that a physician recommendation is the strongest predictor of vaccination. Although the tracking and improvement of adult immunization rates has been encouraged through guidelines and multiple incentives programs, including the meaningful use of electronic health records, most physicians currently do not have the information they need to close the gap and increase the number of patients vaccinated.

"Our cloud platform enables the secure exchange of data and the ability to cost-effectively convert it into actionable information that physicians need to manage their patient populations and improve patient care," said Simone Karp, RPh, Chief Business Development Officer and CECity co-founder. "Through the use of flexible community-wide registries linked to data networks and measurable improvement tools, this collaboration represents a new generation in quality improvement."

A national advisory group co-chaired by Dr. Bernard Rosof, CEO of QHC Advisory Group and Dr. William Schaffner, Immediate Past-President of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, will oversee the program, which will incorporate documented strategies for increasing adult immunization rates and existing ACP resources.

About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 137,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.

Pfizer Inc.: Working together for a healthier world^®At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, Pfizer has worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. To learn more, please visit us at www.pfizer.com.

About CECity
CECity is the health care industry's leading cloud-based provider of social enterprise platforms and services that address the "3 Ps" driven by healthcare reform: Pay for Value Reporting, Performance Improvement, and Professional Certification. CECity combines its scalable registry, quality measurement, and analytics platform with education and improvement interventions from world-class partners, to help all stakeholders answer the most important question, "How Do We Improve?" Leading organizations across healthcare, including physician practices, ACOs, health systems, health plans, pharmacies, certifying boards, professional societies and academic medical centers, count on CECity to power their high stake solutions for performance improvement, clinical quality registries, professional development, Maintenance of Certification, medication adherence, care coordination, population health informatics and value-based reporting.

i: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Adult Vaccination Coverage - United States, 2010. February 3, 2012 / 61(04);66-72. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/wk/mm6104.pdf.

SOURCE American College of Physicians