Immunization

Introduction

The current pages form the SNOMED CT Content Development Canadian Editorial Guidelines for Immunization. They have been reviewed against the latest version of the SNOMED International Editorial Guidelines to ensure alignment between the guidelines, where applicable.

SNOMED International editorial guidelines have been followed and extended to meet specific Canadian requirements as described in these Editorial guidelines.  

The Immunization Editorial guidelines provide the explicit format for the different Vaccine component and Subsets.

Each section provides information on the rules for creation of generic and specific vaccine products as well as their active ingredients using SNOMED CT International and the Canadian Edition. 

English Generic Editorial Guidelines

Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) publishes English Generic Editorial Guidelines. These guidelines should be consulted, along with the guidelines in the following pages prior to creating any new content for submission to Infoway.

Implementers should be familiar with the SNOMED International Guidelines prior to creating submissions for new content.

Immunization Content Development

The development of the Immunization content is based on different documents such as:

1. The product monograph found on the Health Canada Drug Product Database web site has been used as the source of truth for the product’s description.  When the product monograph information was either missing or unclear, other sources were consulted such as:  RxNorm, FDA DailyMed and the NHS drug dictionary terms, which handle similar products. 
2. The Canadian Immunization Guide, Seventh Edition, 2006, published by Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) (and on-line updates) was the initial main reference document for most of the decisions around business requirements. The information can be found online at:

• • https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/canadian-immunization-guide.html (for English)
  • https://www.canada.ca/fr/sante-publique/services/guide-canadien-immunisation.html (for French)
    
    

Main Reference Documentation

• Latest Manufacturers list 
• Latest Vaccines list 
• Health Canada Drug Product Database online query

Other references, available in French and English, were used as part of this work. It is expected that any future development will consider these:

A) Canadian Products

1- Product monograph

a) For the current vaccine tradename

• • The product monograph is available through the Health Canada Drug Product Database Online Query Tool. 

b) For discontinued vaccine tradename

• • When a product is discontinued the product monograph is removed from the manufacturer site and from the Health Canada Drug product database
  • If the requestor does not have the product monograph, Infoway can reach out to the proper Health Canada department to obtain an archived copy.

c) For the current passive immunizing agent tradename

• • The product monograph is available through the Health Canada Drug Product Database Online Query Tool. 

d) For discontinued passive immunizing agent tradename

• • When a product is discontinued the product monograph is removed from the manufacturer site and from the Health Canada Drug product database
  • If the requestor does not have the product monograph, Infoway can reach out to the proper Health Canada department to obtain an archived copy.

2- Vaccines and Passive Agents Abbreviations List

a) For the current vaccine

• • The vaccine abbreviation is created by the Vaccine Vigilance Working Group (VVWG).

b) For the current passive immunizing agent

• • The passive immunizing agent abbreviation is created by Infoway based on the Canadian Immunization Guide.
  • Infoway seeks guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) representative. 

c) Discontinued vaccine 

• • The Vaccine Vigilance Working Group (VVWG) created a list of discontinued vaccines with dates and abbreviations
  • The following documents are also referenced, page 20 (EN) or page 22 (FR) :
    http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/H12-21-3-28-6E.pdf 
    http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/H12-21-3-28-6F.pdf

d) Discontinued passive immunizing agent

• • The current passive immunizing agent abbreviation list created by Infoway can be used for discontinued passive immunizing agent

3- Manufacturer’s abbreviation list  

NOTE: The Vaccine tradename and passive immunizing agent tradename product concepts are created using the manufacturer’s name and abbreviation. In some reference documentation, the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) is referred to as the manufacturer. This may not be true in all cases. The MAH is the organization that distributes the vaccine in Canada and may be different from manufacturing company.

a) For the current vaccine tradename

• • The manufacturer’s abbreviation is created by the Vaccine Vigilance Working Group (VVWG)

b) For the current passive immunizing agent tradename

• • The passive agent manufacturer’s abbreviation is created by Infoway, based on the VVWG principles.
  • Infoway seeks guidance from the Vaccine Supply Working Group (VSWG) representative. 

B) Non-Canadian Products

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (United States) - Vaccine Information Statements / licensed products
• World Health Organization (if not U.S. products) – Vaccine types / licensed products
  
  

This logo   is used throughout the guide to identify areas that will require future clarification from the community of practice.

Thank you to the Ontario representatives for their participation in the initial subsets development.

Thank you to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Ontario and Manitoba for the French Preferred Terms submissions and review.