STC Blog
STC Joins New Mexico’s Clinical Prevention InitiativeTodd Watkins - Senior Vice President/Managing Partner
I recently joined the Clinical Prevention Initiative (CPI), a collaboration of the New Mexico Medical Society (NMMS) and the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH). CPI’s goal is to improve the quality and enhance the delivery of clinical preventive services in the state of New Mexico. In my first meeting I found myself among doctors, professors, state health officials, and executives from pharmaceutical companies, MCOs, and insurance companies. I felt a little out of place considering I was the lone representative from the technology / software world, was likely the least educated, and was the only one wearing a suit. Fortunately the focus of this particular workgroup of CPI was on immunizations – a comfortable topic that eased my insecurity and allowed me to jump right in.
The agenda for the session included updates from NMDOH on flu vaccines, CASA audits, and CDC’s recently released National Immunization Survey (NIS) results (nationally, the US childhood coverage rates were 75% with NM coming in at 71%). NMDOH also provided an update on their immunization registry system (NM SIIS) including a status of an information exchange project with six large providers, and the registry’s ability to handle adult immunizations. The New Mexico Immunization Coalition (NMIC) presented information on school-based and adolescent immunization campaigns. Dr. Lance Chilton, a pediatrician, Board member of the CDC Advisory Council on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and Co-Chair of CPI, led discussions on outreach campaigns focused at “Tweens and Teens.”
One of the more in-depth discussions from Dr. Chilton’s portion of the agenda was on the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Quadrivalent and Bivalent Vaccines. According to the MD Anderson Cancer Center’s website… “Each year, about 11,000 women in the United States learn that they have cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers of the reproductive organs. Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV).”
CPI has been preparing information for physicians and outreach campaigns to the public to promote a broader uptake of this vaccine in New Mexico. We reviewed a draft of an HPV informational paper soon to be distributed by CPI to New Mexico physicians across the state. The paper describes that the HPV three-shot series is indicated in females as young as 9 years of age (at the discretion of the physician), and is also indicated for adolescent females and women between the ages of 13 and 26 years of age who have not received the vaccine.
The paper goes on to discuss that not only is the HPV series recommended to adolescent, teenage, and young adult females, but also “…males ages 11 to 26 years for the prevention of genital warts, and for reduction of the incidence of anal and penile and probably pharyngeal cancer. Administration to males may also lower the risk to transmission of oncogenic and wart-producing types to sexual partners.”
One of the more innovative outreach campaigns CPI is instituting to get the message out on the importance of all vaccines including HPV to the “Tweens and Teens” is by distributing a letter to athletic coaches across the state. This letter provides guidance as to how these leaders of young men and women can educate themselves and their athletes on the importance of protecting themselves and their teammates on contracting vaccine-preventable diseases. While it’s still in draft mode, it is potentially impactful to the target audience. It relates how tetanus could coincide with sports-related injuries, describes how pertussis and diphtheria could cause prolonged absence from practice and games, discusses the dangers of meningococcal disease, and, according to a quick Google search that “…in just one year, 2009, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the UCLA college basketball team, a Chinese hoops squad, and hundreds of high school teams all had a majority of their starters out of action with influenza.”
Through the leadership and good work of this focused workgroup and its dedicated membership, New Mexico is showing the value of empowered individuals and private-public partnerships by promoting vaccine-related initiatives. In doing so, it is helping to make all New Mexicans immune from disabling and potentially life-threatening diseases. To learn more about CPI, please visit the NMMS web site.
Email Todd Watkins your comments.
