An additional 1,100 children in a year received their first MMR vaccine at the right time in North East London thanks to a software tool in GP practices, research has shown.
The software developed by Queen Mary University of London’s Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) assists practices deliver the complex vaccination schedule for children under five, displaying data from patient health records to simplify the ‘call and recall’ of children for routine vaccinations.
The tool called Active Patient Link Immunisation [APL-Imms] was created in response to long-standing low MMR vaccination uptake in the region, which fell even further since the pandemic. The tool is provided free to GP practices in the North East London ICB area.
An evaluation published in Vaccine revealed that the APL-Imms was associated with a rise in the proportion of children who received the MMR vaccine on time. Uptake went from 77.7 % to 81.8 %, with 92 more children immunised each month.
Most children were from non-white ethnic groups and more than 70% lived in the two most deprived quintiles, said the evaluation.
Most practices in the area – 89% – used the tool, with those who accepted the offer of training and hands-on support with the software seeing the biggest improvement in MMR vaccine uptake. These practices improved almost twice as much as those who did not take up the offer, demonstrating the importance of training and support as part of the programme, said the research.
The researchers said the current childhood immunisation programme can be challenging for practices to deliver, especially in mobile populations of children such as those in London.
Dr Milena Marszalek, local GP, lead author of the evaluation and research fellow at Queen Mary’s CEG, said: ‘The success of our programme demonstrates it is possible to deliver more vaccinations on time by simplifying the recall process through digital tools and facilitator support.
‘This is an exciting prospect for other areas of the country with a similar CEG-style support model in place.’
The tech has algorithms that account for 17 pre-school vaccine doses administered on nine occasions, for every child registered at a practice. It means practices can quickly list children who are due or overdue for specific immunisations.
The software also works by flagging anomalies – for example, where a child’s vaccine schedule may have been disrupted or started abroad, which is common in London – and making the childhood immunisation schedule easier to manage for both practices and parents, helping prevent inequalities in protection.
The tool and support programme were delivered by an existing long-term collaboration between Queen Mary and North East London ICB, and funded by charitable and NHS contributions.
Local incentive schemes may still be needed in conjunction with the tool to provide the resources for practices to drive up immunisation rates further, the researchers said.
Professor Carol Dezateux, co-author and professor of epidemiology and health data science at Queen Mary, said there were plans to look at creating local incentive schemes that better supported practices.
‘We will be taking our findings to the NHS North East London ICB to discuss how a local incentive scheme can be devised to better support local practices and avoid costly catch-up programmes and disease outbreaks,’ she said.
