Table 1.

Common terms used to discuss Electronic Immunization Registries

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) is the feedback provided to a healthcare worker through an IR or IIS that provides clinical follow up tools, job aids, or other decision point support.

eHealth Strategy is a strategic plan that incorporates the overall aim of a variety of systems (e.g. IR, IIS, HMIS) in order to meet national programmatic goals.

Functional Standards are a description of the type, variety, and amount of data that will be collected through a system and how it would be shared with other systems. This includes minimal data sets, a data dictionary that describes the data elements and how they are entered into the system, methods of how data would be shared with other systems, and describes the functions of the system.

Information and Communications Technology is an umbrella term used to encompass all rapidly emerging, evolving and converging computer, software, networking, telecommunications, Internet, programming and information systems technologies.

Health Management Information System (HMIS) or Health Information System (HIS) is a system that collects and stores multiple programs aggregate data in order to show progress on status towards programmatic goals through indicators.

Immunization Registry (IR) is a system that collects and reports individual level immunization record data. Used primarily by health workers.

Immunization Information System (IIS) includes an aggregate data collection system that can be linked with an immunization registry. Used for public health reporting.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract between the software provider and the user that describes how the system will be maintained over a defined period of time. This includes maintenance, bug fixes, upgrades, as well as troubleshooting or help desk support.

System is a paper or electronic based method of collecting, storing, and using information. A system is not only the technological component, but also the workforce that collects, reports, and uses the data.

System Integration is the combining of two systems into one through a mapping process of identifying common data elements, such as a unique identifier. This allows for data sets to be combined and for additional analyses to be run, while maintaining separate systems. Functional standards provide the basis for how systems are linked or made “interoperable”.

System Requirements are the translation of the public health programmatic needs, described in the functional standards and user requirements documentation, into the technical specifications that an IT company uses to create the software and develop the system.

User Requirements are a stratified description of the functions the end user, at a variety of levels, would need the system to do. The user requirements ensure that the workflows of the users, whether clinical or public health or at the district or national level, are met. This is also where visualizations, such as dashboards, would be created in order to meet data use needs by the end user to achieve programmatic goals.