Triangle

Supporting the UKHSA (and its predecessors) on the monitoring of national vaccine uptake across the population, including the provision of data specifications and GP system supplier data validation.

Working with PRIMIS is a real pleasure. In addition to the production of outputs of consistently high quality, I very much appreciate the ready access to in-depth and insightful knowledge of coding and terminology that supports the work of UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Dr Colin Campbell, Consultant Medical Epidemiologist,Immunisation & Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Division, UKHSA

 

National vaccine uptake monitoring

PRIMIS is proud to have worked closely with colleagues at the UKHSA since 2015 to support vaccine uptake monitoring for a variety of immunisation programmes including:

  • seasonal influenza  (see below for details)
  • childhood immunisations (MMR, DTaP and Hexavalent, Hepatitis B, Meningitis ACWY)
  • meningitis b
  • shingles
  • rotavirus
  • respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
  • pertussis for pregnant women
  • pneumococcal (PPV and PCV)
  • Covid-19 (see below for details)

The PRIMIS team also works closely with the GP system suppliers on their implementation of the data specifications and undertake a number of data validation projects with a sample of practices in order to provide a report on the validity and reliability of the related ImmForm uptake data collections by GP system suppliers. 

In addition, PRIMIS frequently provides ongoing advice to UKHSA to provide important contextual information about primary care, clinical coding and data recording that may impact their work including the SNOMED Bridging Studies project (see below for more information).  

 

National influenza vaccination uptake data specification

PRIMIS has been commissioned by UKHSA to develop and maintain the data specification that assists in national influenza vaccine monitoring and allows all GP clinical system suppliers to provide regular activity reports (via ImmForm) regarding vaccine uptake to UKHSA.

This data specification comprises all the relevant SNOMED clinical terms (over 24,000 codes) and the inherent logical business rules that help to identify potentially eligible patients and determine their vaccination status at regular periods during each season.

Please note that the PRIMIS influenza data specification is not related to payment and should not be used for recall purposes. The NHS England data specification linked to practice payment can be found here.

If you would like to request a copy of the PRIMIS seasonal influenza vaccination uptake data specification used for the UKHSA ImmForm returns, please click the link below and complete the request form. We aim to process your request within a maximum of 3 working days. It should be noted that the registration process enables us to alert you to any updates to the data specification.

National influenza vaccination data specification request form

Please note that the data specification is a technical document and its interpretation requires a high degree of knowledge and experience of SNOMED clinical terms, logical business rules and electronic health records in general practice. It has been designed for use by NHS colleagues involved in the management of data/data flows for the national influenza vaccination programme. We reserve the right to approve access to the specification on this basis only. 

Additional note: use of the data specification shall be limited to research purposes where prior approval has been confirmed by PRIMIS via email. If you are a researcher or represent a research organisation requiring access to the specification please contact us:

Request research access to the data specification

 

National Covid-19 vaccination uptake reporting specification

PRIMIS has been commissioned by UKHSA to develop and maintain the national data specification to assist in the identification of priority patients for the Covid-19 vaccination programme and will additionally allow all GP clinical system suppliers to provide regular activity reports regarding vaccine uptake to UKHSA and Government (ImmForm data returns).  

This data specification comprises all the relevant SNOMED clinical terms (over 25,000 codes) and the inherent logical business rules that help to identify eligible patients and assign them to the relevant recall groups. 

Please note that the data specification is a technical document and its interpretation requires a high degree of knowledge and experience of SNOMED clinical terms, logical business rules and electronic health records in general practice. It has been designed for use by NHS colleagues involved in the management of data/data flows for the Covid-19 vaccination programme and we reserve the right to approve access to the specification on this basis only. 

If you would like to request a copy of the PRIMIS Covid-19 specification, please click the following link and complete the request form. We aim to process your request within a maximum of 3 working days. It should be noted that the registration process enables us to alert you to any updates to the specification in what is an evolving situation.

Request PRIMIS Covid-19 specification

Email PRIMIS regarding our work on national immunisation programmes

 

 

Are you a practice involved in the pilot?

The axSpA alert and template have been developed to assist in GP or First Contact Physiotherapist consultations where any underlying inflammatory cause of back pain is being considered and to help decide whether to be suspicious of inflammatory back pain (IBP).

It has been designed to be non-intrusive and is carefully optimised to avoid alert fatigue. The axSpA alert and template are only launched when a specific combination of existing codes combined with those entered in a consultation are detected.

The pop-up alert is activated where:

  • the patient is aged between 18 and 44 years old
  • back pain previously recorded in notes in the past 3 - 12 months
  • back pain in entered today in the current open consultation

Unless the patient:

  • is recorded as being on palliative care register
  • has an existing Dx of axSpA
  • has been referred to (or seen by) Rheumatology or back pain clinic in the past year
  • has already assessed for axSpA (using the tool)

Please watch the following video explaining how the tool works:

 

The project will be initiated with a one-off baseline search using the toolkits reporting tool to identify patients that would meet the alert criteria if they attended a consultation on the same day the search was run.

These patients will be sent a link to the NASS symptom checker so that eligible patients can be identified and referred without delay.

This will also provide anonymised summative data to enable an assessment of the effectiveness and user acceptability of the alert.