Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR) FHIR Implementation Guide - Local Development build (v2.7.0) built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) Build Tools. See the Directory of published versions

Business Context

Introduction

Immunisation is an essential component of any public health system and generates significant benefits at individual, governmental and economic levels.

The Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR) is used to help control the spread of infectious diseases by:

• providing information about immunisation coverage across the population
• keeping a record of the vaccinations New Zealanders have received or chosen not to receive.

AIR serves as a single point of truth for understanding overall immunisation coverage from a population health perspective or to plan targeted interventions. It replaces the National Immunisation Register (NIR) and the COVID-19 Immunisation Register (CIR). AIR is being developed as a one-stage project that uses Agile methodology.

AIR's APIs support industry-standard FHIR representations in data of common entities, relationships, artefacts and events encountered in a health context, such as Patient, Practitioner and so forth.

History

The NIR has been in place nationwide since 2005 until its retirement with the roll-out of AIR planned for November, 2023. Its original purpose was to collect comprehensive information about childhood immunisation rates, as well as support the MeNZB immunisation programme. As a consequence, a clear record of childhood immunisation for children born since 2005 was available, however comprehensive information about immunisation for people aged 15 years and over was not.

AIR continues to be developed and expanded to meet the needs of its many stakeholders.

Practice Management Systems (PMS) were developed to work with NIR's legacy HL7 2.0 standard. The AIR project delivered APIs that support these legacy solutions while vendors develop new solutions compatible with the FHIR standard.

Business Problem

Over their lifetime, New Zealanders can receive vaccinations from a range of health providers. A solution is required that enables health providers to get a full picture of a person’s vaccination history, to help them and the consumer make the best health decisions.

AIR aims to provide an accurate understanding of population immunisation coverage rates. This means programmes can be planned better to support populations with the lowest immunisation rates.

It reduces digital barriers and supports the health sector to deliver better immunisation services. It will also give New Zealanders a way to record and track immunisations they have received and are entitled to.

For further information see About AIR at tewhatuora.govt.nz.