CDC to Launch Streamlined Vaccine Tracking System

In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will launch the final deployment of a system to transform the way the agency distributes vaccines to more than 100,000 U.S. doctors and clinicians. The CDC is responsible for providing almost 60 percent of the pediatric vaccines used in the country each year. In the past, distribution was handled through 64 different state, local and territorial health departments, each of which handled its own inventories, had its own methods of tracking those supplies, and had its own way of getting vaccines to health providers. According to Anjella VargasRosales, management officer for the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD): “You’re basically talking about 64 grantees doing business their way. Of course, with more touches, you increase the likelihood of wasted product, of wasted vaccine. And, there was no visibility into the amount of vaccine that was in the pipeline at any one time.”

In December 2010, the first deployment of the new Vaccine Tracking System (VTrckS) was implemented by the NCIRD with six grantee pilot programs. The final deployment of that implementation in April will integrate all the pieces of the vaccine supply chain, from the CDC’s purchase of vaccine from manufacturers, through the ordering by the grantees and the final distribution of the vaccine to health providers. In addition to simplifying the way vaccines are ordered and distributed, VTrckS provides NCIRD more visibility into the process and enables it to use more controls and apply business rules. All grantees will be required to report the levels of inventory they have on hand through VTrckS and that, together with the ordering data, will give the NCIRD a continual update on the state of the supply pipeline. “When I explain it to people, I say that VTrckS completes the vaccine life cycle,” says Vargas-Rosales.