On 22 June 2021, CDISC published v1.0 of the Vaccine Administration: Mapping Curation of Minimum Data Elements and Metadata and an excel mapping spreadsheet. This standard provides public health implementers with direction on how to define and organize data elements by providing metadata that enables machine readability, data sharing, and semantic interoperability, with the added benefit of facilitating the flow of data for submission to global regulatory authorities.
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Vaccine Mapping Curation allows participating countries to provide travelers and security officials with accessible information for use in trip planning and at border checkpoints. This access can eliminate confusion regarding regional requirements, reduce the time spent moving across borders, and allow travelers to move more freely by potentially bypassing travel restrictions like testing or quarantine requirements upon arrival.
SAFE ACCESS: Where mandated, mapping standards can be implemented to protect the safety of workers, patients, customers, and attendees. Accessible information allows quick verification of vaccine status. This is especially important for protecting the health care workers and first responders.
TECHNOLOGY: App Developers can use Vaccine Administration – v1.0 to create accurate interfaces for use by travelers, border security, hospitals, and other businesses that may restrict non-vaccinated access or have more stringent requirements. The curated mappings provide easily accessible and accurate data in a standardized format for all participating countries.
Increasing adoption is anticipated as the value of this standard for public health is validated. It is the belief of those participating in the GIPHT Initiative that any organization interested in promoting public health and sharing relevant vaccine administration data internationally should engage in a global solution and implement this standard. “The information about a person’s COVID-19 vaccinations must be precise and clearly understood by any person or computer that needs to receive it,” commented Dr. Dipak Kalra, President of The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD). “When viruses cross boundaries, the information to manage the disease must see no boundaries.”
