title: The challenge and potential of childhood immunization registries.
abstract: Recent efforts to attain near-complete coverage of child populations by recommended vaccines have included initiatives by federal and state agencies, as well as private foundations, to develop and implement statewide or community-based childhood immunization registries. Plans for a single, national registry have been set aside in favor of a national network of local and state registries linked through the use of common definitions and unique child identifiers. However, both operational/technical and financing difficulties have slowed their development. The experience to date in selected areas has provided useful lessons for further development of a registry system and has underscored the potential of such systems to assure the success of childhood immunization initiatives.
authors.affiliation: Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7590, USA. victoria_freeman@unc.edu
authors.forename: Victoria A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: Gordon H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: DeFriese
mesh_terms: D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D020408:Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs; D040442:Public Health Informatics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012042:Registries; D014481:United States