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      Research Area: Boosting Adult, Adolescent, & Child Immunization and Infectious Disease Prevention

      The number of people who experience devastating effects caused by preventable infectious diseases like measles, diphtheria, and whooping cough is at an all-time low due to the widespread use of effective vaccines. Immunizations are a cornerstone of infectious disease prevention, key for protecting public health across all ages and minimizing the burdensome and costly treatment of infectious diseases as seen in the eradication of smallpox and significantly lower number cases of polio. Routine vaccinations are vital for preventing severe complications and hospitalization for adults, adolescents, and children and align well with efforts toward value-based care.

      COVID-19 

      • Health Equity and COVID-19 Management: Three AMGA member organizations are developing and implementing interventions to address health equity in the management of COVID-19 including vaccination and treatment. Participating organizations convened for an in-person meeting to strategize on multi-level interventions to address equity challenges identified in their data by race and ethnicity. Learn More

      • COVID-19 Impact Type 2 Diabetes Care: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted visits, testing, and clinical measurements among patients with type 2 diabetes with some organizations appearing to be better equipped to manage their patients with diabetes through use of independent labs, home testing and monitoring, or drive-through testing sites. Learn More

      • COVID-19 Impact Timeliness of Follow-Up after At-Home Colorectal Cancer Screening Test: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced rates of follow-up colonoscopy for patients with a positive stool-based test (SBT) for colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients with positive SBTs had much lower rates of follow-up in 2020 relative to 2019, which created a potential backlog of patients at high risk of CRC that never recovered. Learn More

      Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination

      • Factors Impacting the Success of Age 9 HPV Vaccination: A qualitative study to understand factors leading to successful HPV vaccination for 9- and 10-year-olds. Five AMGA member healthcare organizations sent surveys to clinicians and staff who support HPV vaccine delivery. We received a total of 295 surveys. One important factor identified by respondents for successful HPV vaccination starting at age 9 was use of intentional messaging framed around cancer prevention. Learn More

      • Scalable Health System Strategies to Raise HPV Vaccination Rates: This pragmatic NIH trial, led by UCLA, aims to raise HPV vaccine initiation rates in children and adolescents ages 11 to 17. The study will implement and evaluate STOP HPV clinical online communications training alone and in combination with learning collaboratives to reduce missed HPV vaccine opportunities. The goal is to refine interventions and advance scalable, cost-effective uptake of HPV vaccine initiation in health systems. AMGA is seeking members for the study. Learn More

      • Optimizing HPV Vaccine Communication and Use of Standing Orders: This NIH trial, led by UNC, will evaluate the impact of HPV Announcement Approach Communications Training (AAT) and leverage the entire primary care team (including RNs and MAs) to support optimization of standing orders. The aim is to increase HPV vaccine initiation in children ages 9 and 10. Four AMGA members have completed the intervention phase. Learn More
         

      Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

      • Clinician Awareness of RSV in Adults: Roundtable discussions, clinician interviews, and a 15-question knowledge gap finder assessment were completed with representatives from 7 AMGA member organizations to understand clinician knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs around RSV in adults. Results showed an average score of 50% correct on the knowledge assessment indicating the need for provider education to better support patients considering new recommendations for RSV vaccination in adults. Learn More

      Pneumococcal and influenza vaccination

      • A Learning Collaborative to Improve Adult Pneumococcal and Influenza Immunization Rates: A Mixed Methods Study: A mixed methods study designed to evaluate the impact of a Learning Collaborative intervention on >65 age pneumococcal, high- and at-risk pneumococcal, and influenza immunization rates at 7 U.S. healthcare organizations (pilot). The pilot saw the greatest success among pneumococcal rates in high-and at-risk populations (a hard-to-reach group), which increased by almost 12%. A rapid scale up followed to 39 HCOs. Over 5 years, 5.5 million adult vaccinations were administered or documented in 27 states. Learn More
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      Vaccine quality measures and other innovations

      • Health Equity and COVID-19 Management: Three AMGA member organizations are developing and implementing interventions to address health equity in the management of COVID-19 including vaccination and treatment. Participating organizations convened for an in-person meeting to strategize on multi-level interventions to address equity challenges identified in their data by race and ethnicity. Learn More

       

       
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