Immunisation calculator wins grant

Two Invercargill-based public health staff have won the Clinicians’ Challenge with their proposal for an online immunisation catch-up calculator for immigrants and refugees.

Southern District Health Board programme leader for vaccine preventable disease Jillian Boniface and public health analyst Dr Leanne Liggett won the new idea category in the Clinicians’ Challenge and, with that, an $8000 grant to further their work on bringing their system online.

The use of an online system would streamline calculating an immunisation schedule to bring children up to date with their immunisations, removing a lot of manual work.

The idea for the system started a year ago while Liggett was working as lead evaluator for the Dunedin refugee resettlement evaluation. In her focus group work with primary care, the one constant was praise for Boniface’s staff and the work they do with refugees.

‘‘The refugees were only a small part of our work, and the staff were just about drowning in the amount of work. All the immigrant population have the same problem,’’ Boniface said.

With the process being very paperwork intensive, Boniface and Liggett started discussing how to streamline it.

‘‘The immunisation schedule is a very precise schedule of vaccine combinations and the timing of those vaccinations,’’ said Boniface.

A colleague suggested they look at creating an online system, like the one being used in South Australia.

They researched the potential of such a system and realised that it could be very useful throughout the country.

‘‘We had that conversation about the calculator in November last year, so it took us 12 months to come up with a solution that can country,’’ Liggett said.

One hurdle they needed to overcome was the funding of such a system, as the complexity of the system meant a lot of development work would be required.

It was fortuitous that they came across the Clinicians’ Challenge, and they realised that their proposal would fit perfectly in the new idea category.

The challenge received 41 entries across two categories this year.

The $8000 grant would allow them to start a feasibility study on the system, and determine what it would cost to develop it, roll it out locally, and then integrate it into the national processes, she said.

‘‘We want to put the immigrant children in the framework so they can have all the protection from infectious diseases we can offer them,’’ Boniface said. help the whole