Vaccination tool associated with improved vaccination coverage in IBD

The integration of a vaccination tool in the electronic medical record of patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) was significantly associated with an improved vaccination rate. This integrated tool may help to overcome the suboptimal vaccination rates in patients with IMID that were measured in 2018 and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An optimal vaccination rate among patients with IMID is important since these patients are at a higher risk for infectious diseases, according to Ms Liselotte Fierens (KU Leuven, Belgium) [1]. However, many patients do not achieve the guideline-recommended vaccination coverage. In a population of patients with IMID, only 27.4% had a full vaccination coverage in 2018. Ms Fierens and colleagues integrated a vaccination module in the electronic health record of the university hospital of Leuven to document and monitor the vaccination status of patients. Followed were 1,448 patients with IMID, of whom 798 were patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The current vaccination status of these patients was compared with their vaccination status before the introduction of the vaccination tool in 2018.

In the whole study population, the vaccination coverage increased from 27.4% in 2018 to 51.9% in 2021 (P<0.001). In patients with IBD, the vaccination coverage increased from 42.2% to 60.4% (P<0.001). In addition, the proportion of specific vaccinations increased between 2018 and 2021 in patients with IBD, including influenza (75.9% vs 86.3%; P<0.001), pneumococci (72.9% vs 88.7%; P<0.001), hepatitis B (66.0% vs 80.2%; P<0.001), and tetanus (79.9% vs 85.7%; P=0.041). Ms Fierens concluded that this study demonstrated that the integration of a vaccination tool in the electronic health record of patients with IBD and other IMIDs improved the vaccination coverage in this at-risk population.

1. Fierens L, et al. Implementation of a vaccination tool in the electronic patient health record significantly increased vaccination coverage. P115, ECCO 2022, 16–19 February.

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Posted on 12 April 20228 April 2024