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What is IMPACT?
How IMPACT works
IMPACT centres
Why do vaccine surveillance?
IMPACT resources
IMPACT newsletter
What is IMPACT?
IMPACT, Immunization Monitoring Program ACTive, is a paediatric hospital-based national active surveillance network for adverse events following immunization, vaccine failures and selected infectious diseases in children that are, or are soon to be, vaccine preventable.
IMPACT is administered by the Canadian Paediatric Society with funding from the Immunization and Respiratory Infections Division of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
IMPACT reports the more serious hospitalized cases and selected outpatient visits for adverse events and vaccine-preventable diseases, and complements the Canadian Adverse Event Following Immunization Surveillance System (CAEFISS).
How IMPACT works
The national network involves 12 Canadian centres, which represent about 90% of all tertiary care paediatric beds in Canada.
Each IMPACT centre has a designated nurse monitor, who works part time and is supervised by a volunteer physician who specializes in paediatrics and/or infectious diseases. Others who help the nurse monitor with case finding include staff in infection control, emergency and unit nurses/staff as well as laboratory and medical records personnel.
Case examples of adverse events following immunization reported by the IMPACT centres reflect temporal associations, which means they are reported within specific timelines but could be purely coincidental. These events are not to be confused with events being caused by the vaccine.
IMPACT nurse monitors forward reports of adverse events following immunization to the Vaccine Safety Unit at the Immunization Division of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Nurse monitors also respond to requests for follow-up information of severe cases that are reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Causality Assessment.
IMPACT centres
The IMPACT data centre is located in Vancouver, B.C. The 12 IMPACT centres are:
- Alberta Children's Hospital, Calgary, Alta.
- BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, B.C.
- Centre Mère-Enfant de Québec (CHUQ), Québec, Que.
- Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Ont.
- CHU-Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Que.
- IWK Health Centre, Halifax, N.S.
- Eastern Health Janeway Child Health and Rehabilitation Centre, St. John’s, Nfld.
- Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Que.
- Royal University Hospital , Saskatoon, Sask.
- Stollery Children's Hospital, Edmonton, Alta.
- The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ont.
- Winnipeg Children’s Hospital, Winnipeg, Man.
Why do vaccine surveillance?
IMPACT surveillance is designed to detect any occurrences associated with administering new vaccines and can contribute data on the need for new immunization programs in Canada. It is ideally positioned to monitor any changes in events, signals and emerging diseases.
Gathering information on cases of selected infections — such as pertussis (whooping cough), the influenza virus, varicella and zoster virus (chickenpox and shingles), and invasive infections such as Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Neisseria meningitides, and Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria — helps determine the severity of these infections and assess the benefits of new vaccines.
For more information on why vaccine surveillance is important: The case for IMPACT: Addressing the Emergence of Pediatric Vaccination Concerns: Recommendations from a Canadian Policy Analysis (CJPH, March-April 2006).
Permission to post this article was received from the Canadian Public Health Association.
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Last updated: October 2009
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