WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) today launched a new initiative aimed at providing the immunisation community with clear, proven strategies for improving the quality and use of immunisation data.

PAHO said it launched the new initiative, titled “Immunisation Data: Evidence for Action (IDEA)” with the global organisation, PATH, which works to accelerate health equity by bringing together public institutions, businesses and social enterprises.

PAHO said while advances in information technology have led to continuous increases in the amount of health data available, data remains an underutilised resource in the design and implementation of immunisation programmes throughout the world.

It said the IDEA review identifies five proven strategies to improve data use and outlines how funders, policymakers, and programme implementers can incorporate these best practices to improve the efficacy of state, regional, and national immunisation programmes.

These include strategies that address barriers to immunisation should be interconnected and mutually reinforcing; the more data is used, the more likely its quality will improve; data should be an integral part of health decision-making and the use of digital systems should be phased to ensure that the proper infrastructure is in place to manage them.

“The region of the Americas has some of the highest levels of vaccination coverage in the world but despite this, many hard-to-reach populations are still left behind,” said Dr Martha Velandia, Regional Immunisation Advisor at PAHO.

“Ensuring that practitioners have access to rigorous immunisation data is vital for the design and implementation of evidence-based programmes that we know will work. The IDEA review is a huge step towards compiling this evidence and highlighting the areas where more data is needed,” she added.

The IDEA review, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, draws on findings from nearly 550 documents, including published literature, working papers, project evaluations, and reports, distilled and prioritised by global immunisation experts.

The resulting report provides a concise guide for global and public health practitioners, explaining what works to improve data quality and use, why it works, and how the immunisation community can take evidence-based action to improve immunisation outcomes around the world.

“PATH and PAHO conducted the IDEA review to systematically gather available evidence and identify where interventions are working to improve immunisation data use and where we have gaps in information,” said Laurie Werner, Global Director of the BID Initiative with PATH.

“The five strategies described by the review are intended to serve as a resource for all of us working in the immunisation community and help to advance and refine the efforts that are really working.”

The IDEA review is being launched this week in conjunction with the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunisation meeting being held in Geneva, Switzerland.