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WISCONSIN IMMUNIZATION REGISTRY WINS NATIONAL AWARD

Information System Helps Kids Get Vaccines on Time

MADISON--The Wisconsin Immunization Registry (WIR), a tool that helped Wisconsin children reach top compliance levels for immunizations, won the prestigious 2010 Davies Award of Excellence, state health officials announced today. The WIR, an innovative health information system, collects vaccination data to help doctors and clinics keep patients on track to get life-saving immunizations while protecting patient privacy.

“We are honored to receive this award for a system that helps increase immunization rates and makes it easier for doctors, nurses, families and school systems to make sure kids are vaccinated on schedule,” said Dr. Seth Foldy, State Health Officer. “The real winners are Wisconsin’s children, who are now among the best vaccinated in the nation. The WIR will help us meet our goal of 90% of children receiving primary immunizations by their second birthday.”

Incentives included in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are expected to increase the level of participation in WIR and similar health information systems. The software that drives WIR has been shared at no cost with several other state and city health departments.

“Our hope in applying for this award was that other states could learn from our experience,” said Foldy.

Currently, more than 11,000 users in over 4,200 health care facilities use the WIR. More than 2,500 schools can look up records on the WIR to help parents document required immunizations for school attendance. WIR contains over 6.8 million patient records with 49 million associated immunization records. Each business day, 18,000 additional immunization records are added to the WIR.

The Davies Award, given by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) for the past 16 years, recognizes excellence in the implementation and use of health information technology.

Award winners will be offered the opportunity to present at the 2011 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida and review future Davies award applications.

For more information on immunizations and the WIR, visit: http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/immunization/index.htm

Visit http://www.himss.org/davies on the HIMSS website for more information on the Davies Awards.

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Last Revised:  September 16, 2010