SMARTVAX – BUILDING AN ACTIVE VACCINE SAFETY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM USING SMS TECHNOLOGY.

Introduction In 2010, administration of influenza vaccine to children under five years of age was suspended in Australia following an unanticipated surge in febrile convulsions. Reviews of this incident identified the need to improve vaccine safety monitoring including development of active surveillance. Methods We developed a general practice tool (SmartVax) in Western Australia which automatically extracts data from general practice software, government immunisation clinics and hospital clinics and sends a series of SMS messages to parents of recently immunised children, inquiring about possible adverse reactions. De-identified data from 86 participating sites are sent to a secure central database for aggregation, analysis and potential action. Results and Conclusion Since October 2014, 11,839 children 10 years or younger have been monitored under the SmartVax program . (48% male, 52% female) Overall, 72% of parents respond to the program, with 81% of responses received within 4 hours of transmission. Overall, 12.2% of parents report their child experienced a reaction following a scheduled childhood vaccination, and 1.1% of these reactions were medically attended. SmartVax data have been useful for evaluating changes to the childhood immunisation schedule and monitoring the annual paediatric influenza vaccination program in Western Australia. This novel system provides a timely, efficient means to actively monitor vaccine safety and could serve as an early warning system to detect unanticipated safety signals. The use of SMS technology minimises the resources required and may facilitate establishment of active national adverse event surveillance system in Australia and elsewhere.