Newswise — A new quality improvement initiative that aims to create effective solutions in optimizing adult vaccination rates was announced today. The program, the Adult Immunization Project, is a collaboration among the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), Duke Primary Care, Pfizer, and Premier. Researchers will jointly work to develop evidence-based interventions to support indicated adult vaccination practices among providers in the Duke Health system.

Improving adult vaccination rates has been a longstanding goal of the nation’s public health experts. Adults are more likely than children to contract vaccine-preventable diseases, largely because adult immunization rates are considerably lower than childhood rates. Real-world data show that pneumococcal, influenza, tetanus, and herpes zoster vaccination rates lag well behind national goals, particularly for high-risk patient populations. Nearly 50,000 American adults die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases or their complications.

“We all believe that adult immunization rates could be improved,” said Tracy Wang, MD, MHS, MSc, faculty director for DCRI Education. “Less than half of all eligible adults in the U.S. get an annual flu vaccination, which is one of the more common vaccines. The rates of vaccinations for other diseases, such as shingles and pneumonia, are even lower.”

As part of the collaborative project, researchers at Duke will analyze data from primary care practices before, during, and after the deployment of educational interventions to determine which approaches were successful in helping patients understand the benefits and risks associated with various vaccinations. The project will be piloted throughout Duke Primary Care practices, engaging frontline clinic staff on improving patient awareness and delivery of indicated and customary immunization care for current adult patients.

“With the data being collected, we’ll be able to better understand what motivates provider and patient behavior, and understand what types of interventions have the most traction,” said John Anderson, MD, chief medical officer for Duke Primary Care.

Patient data will be stored, streamlined, and analyzed using Premier’s CECity quality analytics platform. The platform is a clinical data warehouse that allows healthcare providers to access patient information in a single, consolidated view. In addition to access of patient vaccination status, the platform allows providers to manage outlier reports, identify high-risk patients, and connect patients to appropriately targeted interventions.“Together, we are in a unique position to provide research-level analytics around an evidence-based quality improvement approach designed to help hospitals and health systems meet population health goals and implement effective, scalable prevention strategies,” said Leigh Anderson, senior vice president and chief information officer at Premier.The initiative is funded by Pfizer, which markets FDA-approved vaccine products in the United States and has a number of vaccine candidates being evaluated in clinical trials.

About the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI)The Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), part of the Duke University School of Medicine, is the largest academic research organization in the world. Its mission is to develop and share knowledge that improves the care of patients through innovative clinical research. The DCRI conducts groundbreaking multinational clinical trials, manages major national patient registries, and performs landmark outcomes research. DCRI research spans multiple disciplines, from pediatrics to geriatrics, primary care to subspecialty medicine, and genomics to proteomics. The DCRI also is home to the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Diseases, the largest and oldest institutional cardiovascular database in the world, which continues to inform clinical decision-making more than 40 years after its founding.

About Duke Primary CareWith more than 200 physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners working out of 32 locations across eight North Carolina counties, Duke Primary Care effectively extends the reach of the Duke University Health System throughout the local community.Duke Primary Care supports Duke Health’s mission of education, research and patient care through the development and integration of a full-service primary care network, and provides unmatched patient care services that include primary internal medicine, family practice and general pediatrics, acute and chronic care management, disease prevention and wellness, and urgent care.

About Premier Inc.Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,750 U.S. hospitals and 130,000 other providers. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com.