An Interoperable Vaccine Record: A Roadmap to Realization

<b>Objectives</b>: The objectives of this study were to educate the healthcare professional and the general public about interoperable vaccine records by elaborating on its definition, why we need one, what the challenges are, and what progress has been made in this direction. <b>Methods</b>: The vaccination practices and vaccine record-keeping in the Nordic countries, the UK, and the USA are used as examples to demonstrate the necessity of interoperable vaccine records. The authors' expertise and experience in interoperability, medicine, and HealthIT, along with the literature, informed this paper's content, structure, and organization. Real-world examples and scenarios illustrate the reality and significance of interoperable vaccine records. <b>Results</b>: This paper provides a brief description of vaccination records and their practices in the Nordic countries, the UK, and the USA, which can inform future best practices for vaccination record-keeping. This paper also proposes a conceptual roadmap for achieving an interoperable vaccine record, which is a critical component for maintaining the integrity of an individual's health record longitudinally, an essential cornerstone for receiving safe and effective healthcare, improving patient outcomes, controlling healthcare costs, avoiding unnecessary revaccination (overvaccination), and enabling alignment with up-to-date vaccine recommendations. This paper examines the intersection of vaccinations, HealthIT, and vaccine record-keeping, and it provides a brief discussion of the social and political aspects of vaccination. <b>Conclusions</b>: Although achieving interoperable vaccine records is technically feasible and clinically important, their large-scale implementation is not a simple task amid the social and political challenges related to vaccine misinformation, acceptance, and hesitancy.