POIZ Key Words and Concepts

For inclusion in the POIZ ballot package:

Assessment or Evaluation: The assessment or evaluation is the determination of whether vaccine doses administered to a patient are valid based on an accepted schedule.

Series: A series is the constellation of vaccine doses that meet the criteria to be considered protected against members of a vaccine group. More than one series may meet those goals and some series may be amended based on history. For instance, there are several series that can meet the goals of HIB. The number of doses recommended for one of these series changes, based on current age and history of vaccination.

Vaccination Forecast: The vaccine administration recommendations, based on the previous history of vaccination, patient/client age, and patient/client health conditions. These recommendations would be derived from the series selected in the schedule selected.

Vaccination History: The collection of vaccine doses actually administered to a patient.

Vaccination Schedule: A schedule is the collection of series. In most cases, a schedule is published and supported by health jurisdictions or groups, such as the ACIP in the US.

Vaccine group/vaccine family: The set of vaccines that can be administered to meet the patient's goal of being protected against a particular infectious disease or set of diseases.

[Note: I fundamentally disagree with the definition of Series (and therefore the definition of Schedule) here and continue to maintain that it is no different than group/family. (Noam Arzt)]