Late News: Organization should oversee U.S. vaccinations: IOM report

A new report from the Institute of Medicine recommends that the U.S. have a coordinating organization to oversee vaccines, given that vaccinations are considered a major public-health intervention involving multiple stakeholders, including healthcare providers, patients, researchers, health departments and vaccine manufacturers. Last year, HHS’ National Vaccine Program Office asked the IOM to convene a committee to hold workshops to review a draft update of the National Vaccine Plan, which was required by the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. Among other suggestions, the report from the IOM also recommended that the National Vaccine Plan incorporate a process for prioritizing new and improved vaccine candidates in order to speed their development and create the basis for a prioritized national vaccine safety research agenda that spans all federal agencies. (For more on the flu pandemic, see p. 12.)