Improving Standard Immunization Practices Among Pharmacists and Other Healthcare Providers - The American Institutes for Research (AIR), a national leader in implementation, evaluation and evidence-based approaches to health innovation, and the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), the national professional pharmacy organization for pharmacists who care for older adults, have partnered to address a need for increased pharmacist immunizations, and improved immunization practices. We propose an implementation program to increase immunizations through five activities, (1) pharmacist education, (2) pharmacy practice support, (3) pandemic planning, (4) outreach, and (5) dissemination. We will develop targeted trainings to pharmacists using ASCP’s current education platform and offering continuing education credits. To help pharmacies implement data sharing and referral practices we will create an Age Friendly Immunization Pharmacy credential which will distinguish pharmacies that have agreed to implement best practices for immunization, including robust data sharing with the CDC Immunization Information Systems (IIS), proven referral practices, and strong documentation procedures. We will engage in planning for immunization needs in future pandemics by building on our pre-existing pandemic planning during Operation Warp Speed by adding other organizations and stakeholders from communities with vaccine hesitancy. To outreach to communities with low confidence in vaccinations, we will convene a Technical Expert Panel and longitudinally assess our program with input of experts in engagement and community leaders, while conducting outreach events that meet local health needs. We will also write manuscripts, white papers and offer presentations to disseminate best practices and findings of this work. The outcomes of our project will be increased numbers of trained pharmacists, increased numbers of pharmacies that share data with IIS, increased numbers of organizations with formal agreements to engage in pandemic planning of vaccinations, higher rates of vaccine acceptance in targeted communities, and a body of presentations and peer-reviewed publications. We will also develop and adjust process measures for evaluation in consultation with pharmacists, pharmacy leaders, community members and local health officials and adapt our program to meet implementation needs as they arise, while centering health equity and sustainable innovation. Both AIR and ASCP have long histories of working with national and governmental partners on large scale public health projects, including a recent CDC contract on barriers to rural vaccination and national pharmacist immunization trainings.
