9 minute read

JULY 1, 2026

As we wrap up June, I want to thank everyone who joined us for another month of learning, collaboration, and connection across our community.

We closed out the month with the June Discovery Session on June 22, where Lauren Shaw from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presented “Get Ready for IISSAR – Q2 2026.” Lauren walked participants through an overview of the 2026 Q2 Immunization Information Systems Semi-Annual Report (IISSAR), highlighted key reporting considerations, and shared practical guidance to help jurisdictions prepare for the upcoming reporting cycle.

On June 30, AIRA hosted an Envision webinar, “Modernization in Action: Turning Strategy into Public Health Impact.” The webinar explored how organizations can move beyond strategic planning to successfully implement meaningful change and transform their goals into measurable outcomes.

From June 29 to July 1, public health leaders from across the country gathered for the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Attendees explored emerging trends and innovations in vital records, including digital birth credential (dBC) implementation, FHIR adoption for electronic death reporting to CDC National Centers for Health Statistics (NCHS), and strategies to modernize vital records systems and operations.

As we look ahead, we hope you'll join us for our next Discovery Session, “Patient Matching – Multiple Organization | A Town Hall,” on July 27 from 4 to 5 p.m. ET. It promises to be another great opportunity to hear from experts, ask questions, and engage with colleagues on this important topic.

Finally, as many of us take time to celebrate Independence Day, I hope you have the opportunity to relax, recharge, and spend time with family and friends. Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and enjoyable Fourth of July!

Rebecca Coyle, MSEd
Executive Director

The June edition of SnapShots is available in the AIRA Repository! This edition highlights the innovative work happening across the IIS community, featuring research from Louisiana on adolescent vaccine completion; a collaboration between Athenahealth, STChealth, and the Mississippi Department of Health addressing challenges with unstable patient identifiers in HL7 messaging; Tennessee’s IIS team sharing its approach to processing duplicate records through CDC’s Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage (PPRL) process; Docket’s latest enhancements to Docket For Schools; and PHII’s IIS Learning Hub featured in the Education Exchange.

AIRA is also accepting submissions for the September edition of SnapShots. This is a great opportunity to highlight your team's work, share valuable insights, and contribute to the ongoing conversation within the IIS community. 

Submission Deadline: Monday, July 13

To submit content for consideration, please email your article or idea to [email protected]. Questions? Contact Gabriella Wagoner at [email protected].

Need inspiration? Explore past editions of SnapShots in the AIRA Repository.

We look forward to hearing about the impactful work happening across the IIS community and reviewing your submissions!

Artificial Intelligence is dominating headlines, but what does it mean for public health today?

While many organizations are still working to understand AI’s role in daily operations, the world of software development is already being transformed by rapidly advancing technologies. This creates a growing gap between perception and reality, one that will be addressed by sharing analysis of market signals, along with perspectives informed by experience building next-generation public health platforms.

Drawing on industry trends and firsthand experience modernizing and supporting public health systems, STChealth will provide a practical lens into how advancing technology is shaping the tools, infrastructure, and data ecosystems organizations rely on every day.

Join STChealth on Tuesday, July 14 from 1-2 p.m. ET to gain clarity on the current landscape, understand where meaningful adoption is happening, and learn how to position your organization for what’s next.

Register for this session to learn more about:

• How the market is actually using AI today, and where adoption is accelerating across public health
• Key signals pointing to major shifts in how future-ready public health systems will be built, integrated, and supported
• What these trends mean for your organization’s technology strategy, operational resilience, and long-term readiness

AIRA has built the Patient Matching – Extract pilot to advance Measurement and Improvement (M&I) data quality activities across member jurisdictions. While traditional M&I patient matching evaluates real-time HL7 transactions using synthetic test records, the Extract method provides a complementary diagnostic view by analyzing production data for duplicate patient records.

What Your Jurisdiction Receives

• Actionable List of Possible Duplicates: A list of potential duplicate record pairs to review and merge, providing an immediate mechanism to resolve duplicate patient records
• Placeholder/Bad First Names Report: A compiled list of invalid entries or placeholder data within the first name field to implement targeted data quality corrections
• Invalid/Bad Phone Numbers Report: An isolated list of improperly formatted or “bad” phone numbers to quickly improve contact information integrity

Participation Expectations and Timeline

The pilot will run from July 13 through July 31. Participating jurisdictions are expected to complete the following activities during this period:

• Attend the project kick-off call
• Perform the production data extract, run the command line tool locally, and upload the resulting aggregate data to qDAR
  • Office hours will be provided to assist with the extraction and tool execution process
• Manually review assigned duplicate pairs and provide finalized feedback templates to AIRA
• Attend the final pilot wrap-up call and complete a brief post-pilot evaluation questionnaire

Interested in participating or have questions? Please contact Shelby Sandstrom at [email protected].

Please join us at our IIS Data Analyst Collaborative (IDAC) meet-up, an opportunity for IIS data analysts to share, discuss, and learn from their peers. During these one-hour discussion-based meetings, participants have a chance to ask questions, discuss their experiences, share their successes, and more!

July’s IDAC session will discuss the metrics involved in calculating RSV coverage rates and work towards defining a consensus method in preparation for the upcoming season.

Who attends: Anyone who supports the extraction, analysis, and interpretation of immunization data in their jurisdiction is invited to participate.

When: July 16, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET

Interested in participating and have not registered yet? Simply click the button below! This event will be capped at 50 participants.

Do you find yourself wondering what others are doing with their IIS data? Chat with fellow data analysts on AIRA’s Forum.

Please email Jody Dial at [email protected] if you have a topic request for a future IIS Data Analyst Collaborative!

Join us for the upcoming AIRA Members and Partners meeting on Monday, July 20, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. AIRA Members and Partners quarterly meetings provide important updates from AIRA and partner organizations and are a great way to get a high-level overview of the activities going on within the IIS and immunization community.

Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with calendar links for easy access. If you can’t make it, a recording will be available in the AIRA Repository. We hope you’ll join us on July 20!

Join Docket on July 23 from 2 to 3 p.m. ETfor an interactive session spotlighting Docket® For Schools. During this session, attendees will receive a demo of Docket’s School and Childcare Module for IIS. During the demo, Docket will address common pain points:

• Provisioning access for school nurses, registrars, and other stakeholders
• Ensuring consistent reporting of student immunization compliance
• Identifying at-risk students and student cohorts
• Monitoring on-time report submissions
• Navigating both HIPAA and FERPA

Another Measurement and Improvement (M&I) content area is on the move! Earlier this spring, many of you participated in moving Data at Rest (DAR) toward Validation. This summer, AIRA’s M&I initiative continues that momentum with an opportunity to explore the future of HL7 Patient Matching – HL7 Multiple Organization.

Accurate patient matching is essential for maintaining complete, reliable immunization records and supporting interoperability across organizations. During this interactive Town Hall on Monday, July 27 at 4 p.m. ET, AIRA staff members Damon Ferlazzo and Eric Larson will guide the IIS community through the draft Measures and Tests document.

What to Expect:

• Overview of M&I and the measurable concept of Patient Matching – Multiple Organization
• Findings and lessons learned from IIS participation in M&I Testing and Discovery
• Proposed methodology and measures to assess IIS alignment with the relevant functional standards

Once registered, you’ll receive a confirmation email with links to add the event to your calendar. 

Participate and Provide Feedback

As part of the Town Hall discussion, all members of the IIS community are invited to review and comment on theMeasures and Tests. Comments will be accepted through Friday, August 14. We welcome both concerns and areas of agreement, as each provides valuable input to the review process. Please add your feedback directly to the document and send to Damon Ferlazzo at [email protected].

If you are unable to attend the Discovery Session, it will be recorded and made available in the AIRA Repository. We hope you’ll join us on July 27!

Registration for the first-of-its-kind conference, AIxPH, is now open! This conference is focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and public health, bringing together leaders from public health, technology, academia, philanthropy, government, and community-based organizations.

Join the NNPHI October 14–October 16, 2026, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland.

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We are excited to announce the publication of the new Technical Advisory Bulletin (TAB) in the AIRA Repository: Acknowledgment (ACK) Messaging: Updated Specifications and Guidance.

This TAB provides updated specifications and implementation guidance for HL7 v2.5.1 immunization acknowledgment (ACK) messaging in response to submitted VXU messages. These updates are intended to improve the consistency and clarity of IIS ACK responses, making acknowledgment outcomes easier to interpret and act upon through the following changes:

• Expanding use of MSA-1 value ‘AR’ to indicate that the ACK contains one or more severity ‘E’ errors, signaling that correction and resubmission of the VXU are required
• Restricting use of MSA-1 value ‘AE’ to indicate that the ACK contains one or more severity ‘W’ errors (and no severity ‘E’ errors), signaling that correction is needed but resubmission is not required
• Clarifying the definition of VXU ‘acceptance’ to mean either successful processing with no issues requiring follow-up (MSA-1 = ‘AA’) or qualified successful processing with issue(s) requiring correction but not resubmission (MSA-1 = ‘AE’)
• Clarifying the definition of VXU ‘rejection’ to mean unsuccessful processing due to one or more severity ‘E’ errors requiring correction and resubmission, as indicated by MSA-1 = ‘AR’

In addition to these changes, the TAB offers expanded guidance for ERR-2 error location reporting, expands the national set of ERR-5 application error codes, establishes expected support for a subset of high-priority ERR-5 error codes, and clarifies expectations for ERR-8 user-facing messages. 

These specifications are expected to be incorporated into the new version of the HL7 2.5.1 Implementation Guide under development. IIS are encouraged to begin reviewing the TAB to evaluate potential impacts to current ACK implementation and processing workflows. Further guidance and implementation support is anticipated to help the IIS community prepare for and implement these updates.

On June 22, AIRA hosted a Discovery Session, “Get Ready for IISSAR – Q2 2026.” During the Discovery Session, Lauren Shaw from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided an overview of the 2026 Q2 Immunization Information Systems Semi-Annual Report (IISSAR). The IISSAR is a survey that assesses immunization program performance in developing, maintaining, and enhancing immunization information systems across the 66 immunization program awardees.

Attendees learned about the July 2026 survey launch, the reporting process, and how IISSAR supports the ongoing development, maintenance, and enhancement of IIS nationwide. This session provided valuable context for IIS professionals involved in program operations, reporting, and continuous improvement efforts.

If you or a staff member missed the live event, don’t fret! The session recording and presentation slides are now available in the AIRA Repository.

AIRA will release an updated version of Security Guidance Considerations for Immunization Information Systems (IIS) for community review in early July. The updated guidance incorporates input from subject matter experts, an advisory panel representing the IIS and public health communities, and current cybersecurity best practices.

To ensure the guidance is practical, relevant, and responsive to the needs of today's IIS environments, AIRA will be seeking feedback from IIS jurisdictions, implementers, public health partners, and other IIS community members. Community input will play an important role in shaping the final document.

To participate in the upcoming review or to learn more, contact Tesha Lucas at [email protected].

AIRA members can submit and review information requests—a circulation of questions to, and answers from, the community. Recent information requests can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter in the AIRA Repository.

Information requests are viewable only by individual members and individuals affiliated with member and partner organizations. Recent information requests can be found by using the “Information Requests” filter in the AIRA Repository. Just log in to view these valuable resources! If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

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