We have many friends in our continued efforts to raise public awareness and improve public health with higher immunization rates. Today, we read a blog post from Dr. Bill Schaffner, President of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a physician leader, which calls for collaboration among physicians and pharmacists to increase vaccination rates. Here’s a tip of the hat to Dr. Schaffner!

Dr. Schaffner’s blog post reminds us of the essential need to keep our patients’ needs as our focus. If we continue to do so, we will only see growth in this kind of support. Health information technology will assist in this growth by allowing the sharing of immunization information between pharmacists and physicians, thereby better coordinating patients’ care. This shouldn’t be a turf war when we have many individuals going around unprotected and vaccine sitting idly on shelves. At the local level, we encourage all pharmacists to continue the dialogue with physicians and other immunization stakeholders regarding the role that each of us can and does play in improving the public health of our communities.