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ECBT traveled to California for several days in April to help immunization advocates promote immunization registries and celebrate National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW).  The trip commenced in Berkeley, CA where ECBT Cofounder Betty Bumpers, Jennifer Zavolinsky, Senior Manager, Immunization Outreach Initiatives, and Angela Salazar from the Registry Support Branch of the CDC/NIP attended the California Statewide Immunization Information System (SIIS) meeting. SIIS is working to develop an integrated, statewide computerized registry to network each child's full immunization history. This annual meeting consisted of representatives from local health departments, the California Department of Health Services Immunization Branch, and a spectrum of key stakeholders across the state. Mrs. Bumpers provided the keynote address at the meeting informing attendees of national immunization efforts and ECBT’s recent activities related to immunization registries.

The next two stops on the California trip were Modesto and Stockton, CA.  While there, Betty, Jennifer and Angela spoke at three meetings hosted by Blue Cross of California for the health plan’s participating office managers, nurses and physicians. The goal of the meetings was to increase private provider participation in the RIDE registry program, which is run by San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties in California.  At the meetings, ECBT spoke about national efforts to increase private provider and health plan participation in registries and highlighted the benefits that providers can gain by participating in their local registry.  ECBT’s CD-ROM, Health Care Providers Speak Out on Immunization Registries was shown to the attendees followed by a demonstration of the RIDE program by Justin Labadie. Participants were strongly encouraged to enroll in the registry and ECBT received a great deal of positive feedback at all three meetings. We currently await results from registry staff to determine the effectiveness of this provider outreach program.

The trip culminated with a press conference held at the Mission Neighborhood Health Clinic of San Francisco hosted by the California Coalition for Childhood Immunization (C3I).  During the media event, speakers, including Betty Bumpers, Edgardo Alfonso of the San Francisco Giants, and Steve Barrow of C3I, touted the importance of childhood immunization and the utilization of the immunization registry as a primary method to improve immunization delivery. Senator Speier’s registry bill (SB 1764), which includes provisions to fully fund the California Statewide Immunization System (SIIS), was highlighted during this event.

Please contact Jennifer Zavolinsky at Jennifer@ecbt.org or 202-783-7034, for a copy of the CD-ROM or if you are interested in having ECBT participate in a meeting to increase health plan and/or private participation in your registry.

Photo of kids singing at the press conference
Photo of all of the speakers at the press conference.