AMGA Launches National Rise to Immunize™ Campaign to Increase Routine Adult Immunizations
New Initiative Aims to Administer 25 Million Immunizations by 2025
Alexandria, VA – Yesterday, AMGA launched a national campaign, Rise to Immunize™, aimed at increasing routine adult immunizations across the country. This four-year initiative challenges leading healthcare organizations to work together to administer 25 million immunizations—including influenza; pneumococcal pneumonia; tetanus toxoid-diphtheria (Td) or tetanus toxoid-diphtheria-pertussis (Tdap); and zoster—by 2025.
AMGA medical groups and health systems from across the nation attended yesterday’s campaign launch event during the virtual AMGA Innovation, Quality, and Leadership (IQL) Conference. The event featured leaders of prominent healthcare organizations discussing why they are excited to join Rise to Immunize™ and how their organizations recognized measurable improvement through participation in past AMGA national campaigns. They cited Rise to Immunize™ components, such as peer-to-peer collaboration, data reporting, and educational resources, as key to increasing adult immunization rates.
Immunizations are among the most effective and cost-efficient preventive health interventions available.1,2,3 Despite the value of immunizations in maintaining the health of individuals and their communities, most adults in the United States are missing one or more routinely recommended vaccines.4 This challenge has been exacerbated over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with routine adult immunization rates declining even more as fewer people have received preventive care. 5,6
“We are proud to launch the Rise to Immunize™ campaign and build upon the hard work that our members are doing to fully immunize their adult patients to help protect them from illnesses including flu, pneumonia, shingles, tetanus, and pertussis,” says John Kennedy, M.D., AMGA chief medical officer and AMGA Foundation president. “I am confident that over the next four years, with the dedication and commitment of some of the most prestigious healthcare systems in the country, we will not only meet our goal but can also help protect millions of adults nationwide from vaccine-preventable disease and related death.”
To improve adult vaccination rates, participating AMGA members will implement evidence-based care processes, or “campaign planks,” that focus on provider and staff education, clinical support, IT/documentation, patient education, and financial management. Additionally, campaign participants will report data on a quarterly basis to measure progress towards their collective goal. Participating groups will use best-practice resources and tools identified and provided by the campaign to drive improvement.
“In the face of the pandemic, we have seen how persistent scientific innovation and collaboration has helped save many lives,” says Radife Kiral, Regional President, North America Vaccines, at Pfizer Inc. “As the founding sponsor of the Rise to Immunize™ campaign, we are focusing our efforts on public health to overcome unmet needs and share findings that will help close the gaps in adult immunizations.”
Additional campaign sponsors include: Sanofi Pasteur (Principal Sponsor), Merck & Co., Inc. (Achieving Sponsor), and GSK and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Contributing Sponsors). Campaign Partners include Gerontological Society of America, Immunization Action Coalition, and National Minority Quality Forum.
Rise to Immunize™ is AMGA’s third national campaign, building on the momentum of two prior successful initiatives. In the first campaign, Measure Up/Pressure Down®, nearly 150 AMGA members worked together to improve blood pressure detection or control for more than half a million Americans. In the second campaign, Together 2 Goal®, more than 150 healthcare organizations improved diabetes care for over one million Americans.
1. Whitney CG, et al., Benefits from Immunization during the Vaccines for Children Program Era — United States, 1994–2013. MMWR Weekly 2014;63(16);352–355. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6316a4.htm.
2. Dabestani NM, et al., A Review of the Cost-Effectiveness of Adult Influenza Vaccination and Other Preventive Services. Prev Med. 2019 Sep;126:105734. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.05.022.
3. CDC. Ten Great Public Health Achievements—United States, 2001–2010. MMWR Weekly 2011:60(19);619–623. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6019a.htm.
4. Lu P, Hung M, Srivastav A, et al., Surveillance of Vaccination Coverage among Adult Populations—United States, 2018. MMWR Surveill Summ 2021;70(No. SS-3):1–26. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.ss7003a1.
5. CDC. Quickstats: Percentage of Adults >50 Years Who Ever Received a Shingles Vaccination, by Race and Hispanic Origin and Sex – National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), United States 2019. MMWR 2021;70:901.
6. Avalere. Updated Analysis Finds Sustained Drop in Routine Vaccines through 2020. Avalere Insight, June 9, 2021. https://avalere.com/insights/updated-analysis-finds-sustained-drop-in-routine-vaccines-through-2020.
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About Rise to Immunize™
The AMGA Foundation, the nonprofit arm of AMGA, launched Rise to Immunize™, a four-year campaign to improve routine adult vaccination rates, on September 23, 2021. The national campaign engages medical groups and health systems, non-profit partners, and sponsors across the country—such as Banner Medical Group, USMD Health System, The Iowa Clinic, UPMC Susquehanna, Immunization Action Coalition, and Pfizer Inc. The goal of this four-year campaign is to collectively administer 25 million immunizations by 2025. To learn more, visit RiseToImmunize.org.
About AMGA Foundation
AMGA Foundation is AMGA’s philanthropic arm that enables medical groups and other organized systems of care to consistently improve health and health care. AMGA Foundation serves as a catalyst, connector, and collaborator for translating the evidence of what works best in improving health and health care in everyday practice. To learn more, visit amga.org/foundation.
About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of our members’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high quality, high-value care. More than 175,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to one in three Americans.