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The Vaccine Selection Algorithm was developed in 1997 to meet the challenge of
procuring vaccines among an increasing menu of new monovalent and combination
vaccines with overlapping, non-complementary antigens.
It determines which group of vaccines represents the economic "best value" in
producing the lowest-cost formulary which satisfies the
current recommended childhood immunization schedule
in the United States. It currently takes into account known or estimated costs
for vaccine purchase, for each separate injection, and for preparation time.
In the future, additional parameters with economic value that distinguish
between competing vaccines might be added to this formulary selection tool,
when appropriate, to recognize the economic advantages of new vaccines with
improved thermal stability reducing cold-chain requirements, extended shelf
life reducing wastage from expiration, alternative administration routes such
as oral and intranasal, and differing safety profiles an efficacy rates
determined in head-to-head trials.
The algorithm does not recognize amounts actually paid to providers for specific
vaccine types and for vaccine administration under
CPT® code
- based reimbursement schemes.
This web site is brought to you by
Austral Engineering and Software, Inc., with support from a
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract (no. 200-2002-00789)
with the National
Immunization Program (NIP) of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This effort results
from collaboration between vaccine epidemiology staff at the CDC and industrial
operations research engineers now at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
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