ONC, CDC pilots push immunization record access through Blue Button

The beginning of the school year means the scramble to provide immunization records to educational institutions.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and five states are piloting approaches where parents get direct access to their children’s immunization records as part of the Blue Button Initiative, according to a Health IT Buzz blog post by Simone Myrie, a public health analyst at ONC.

In the pilots, which began in October 2013 and are scheduled to run through April 2016, Arizona, Alaska, Louisiana, Washington and West Virginia each have a patient-accessible immunization information system that records all vaccinations administrated by participating providers.

“Giving patients or caregivers online access to immunization records, through tools like portals, will reduce the need to schedule office visits to get official copies of immunization records each time they are needed. And, with these portals, providers and parents or guardians are able to use decision support tools to remind them when immunizations are due,” Myrie wrote.

She cited one practice, Latouche Pediatrics in Anchorage, in which families can log in to LaTouche ‘s patient portal, view and print copies of their immunizations records along with other health information. The information is available via smartphone, and patients can type in a facsimile number and have the immunization information sent directly to a school nurse.

“Beyond the ONC and CDC pilot programs, there are other medical offices around the country that are proactively connecting with their state immunization system and giving families access to their vaccination records on their own patient portals,” added Myrie.

Read the full blog post here.