App to save the date to vaccinate

NSW Health has launched an app for the iPhone and Android devices to help parents remember their child's vaccination schedule and book a GP appointment straight from the app.

As part of NSW Health's new 'Save the Date to Vaccinate' campaign, the new app allows parents to enter their child’s name and birth date, as well as their GP’s contact details, into the app.

The app will then calculate the next immunisation due date and send a series of reminders to prompt the parent to call their GP to schedule an appointment for each immunisation. Parents can make the call straight from the app.

NSW Health director of health protection, Jeremy McAnulty, said the campaign aims to remind parents about the importance of vaccinating children on time, and provides a range of tools and resources to make it easier.

Parents can use the app on their phone or add the child's birth date, name and postcode through the website to create a printable vaccination schedule.

The immunisation website also contains a series of downloadable brochures on the facts about vaccination, dispelling many of the myths promulgated by anti-vaccination campaigners.

All children under seven and enrolled in Medicare are automatically included in the national Australian Childhood Immunisation Register hosted by the Department of Human Services. A vaccination history statement is sent to parents when the child turns 18 months and again at five. This information is also automatically linked to the child's PCEHR.

NSW Health's mobile BlueBook app is also available on the App Store, but it can only be used by parents who are taking part in the trial of the technology through the NSW HealtheNet service for Greater Western Sydney.

That trial is an extension of the work on the electronic BlueBook first funded as part of the GWS Wave 2 eHealth site and involves children born at Blacktown, Nepean, Auburn, Westmead or Blue Mountains Anzac Memorial hospitals.

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