Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Immunization programmes can save lives and, when delivered effectively, can save the health care system money. To do this, programmes need information on the immunization status of every person living in that area. As immunization is a lifelong intervention, and vaccines are given by multiple providers, collecting and updating immunization information can be very challenging. The advent and widespread adoption of digital tools such as mobile applications could play a crucial role in closing gaps in data by engaging patients in the process of collecting and managing their medical information. However, it is not known whether individuals would utilize mobile apps to communicate this information to public health, or whether the data they collect is accurate or useful. For this study, we augmented a personal immunization app, CANImmunize, to allow parents of children in Ottawa, Ontario to report immunization status directly from their smartphones to public health. We extracted and analyzed collected data a to measure uptake of the app as a proxy for acceptability by parents and usability by public health. Over 20,000 immunizations were transmitted for more than 1,500 children. Of those children, 70% were aged 0-5, 17% were 6-10 years old and the remaining 13% were 11-15 years old. This study suggests that parental reporting of immunizations to public health via mobile devices may be useful and acceptable.