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STUDY PROTOCOL article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1490244
This article is part of the Research Topic Maximizing Local Government Impact on Community Health Initiatives View all 5 articles

Digital Integration between Hospitals and Local Health Authorities for Enhanced Vaccination Coverage among Frail Patients: The CareVax Study Protocol

Provisionally accepted
Alberto Lontano Alberto Lontano 1Luca Regazzi Luca Regazzi 1Diego Maria Tona Diego Maria Tona 1Matteo Di Pumpo Matteo Di Pumpo 1Martina Porcelli Martina Porcelli 1Maria Gabriella Cacciuttolo Maria Gabriella Cacciuttolo 1Paolo Parente Paolo Parente 2Antonio Gasbarrini Antonio Gasbarrini 3,4Giuseppe Grandaliano Giuseppe Grandaliano 4,5Nicola Panocchia Nicola Panocchia 3,4Loris Lopetuso Loris Lopetuso 4Tina Pasciuto Tina Pasciuto 1,6Chiara Cadeddu Chiara Cadeddu 7Stefania Bruno Stefania Bruno 1,8Patrizia Laurenti Patrizia Laurenti 1,8Domenico Pascucci Domenico Pascucci 1,9*Roberta Pastorino Roberta Pastorino 1,8
  • 1 Section of Hygiene, University Department of Health Sciences and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
  • 2 Azienda Sanitaria Locale Roma 1, Rome, Lazio, Italy
  • 3 Department of Translational Medicine and Surgery, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
  • 4 Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy, Rome, Italy
  • 5 Section of Hygene, Department of Health Science and Public Health, Institute of Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy, Rome, Sicily, Italy
  • 6 Research Core Facilty Data Collection G-STeP, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy, Rome, Italy
  • 7 School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • 8 . Department of Women, Child and Public Health Sciences, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168, Rome, Italy, Rome, Italy
  • 9 Health Management, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy, Rome, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The 2022-2025 Italian Plan for vaccine prevention (PNPV), recognizes vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) as significant contributors to mortality, morbidity, and healthcare expenditure. The digitalization of the national vaccine registry is underway. Initiatives aimed at enhancing digital integration between hospitals and territories are limited, and there is still a gap in the development of automated systems for identifying patients who could benefit from vaccinations directly offered from hospitals. Adult frail patients who access the hospital will be recruited over four years, following the acquisition of informed consent. With the assistance of a privacy-preserving automated algorithm, electronic hospital and vaccination records will be utilized to assess eligibility for vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2, Herpes Zoster, Influenza, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Hepatitis B. Eligible patients will be invited to schedule a vaccination appointment and will be asked to fill in a questionnaire evaluating patient-reported experience measures (PREMs). Outcomes of interest are the feasibility of the pathway, patients’ satisfaction and concerns with it, and its impact on vaccination coverage. The study has been approved by the ethics committee of the “Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli” -FPG- (comitato.etico@policlinicogemelli.it), with approval number 5819. Furthermore, it has been published on ClinicalTrial.gov with the approval number NCT06127563. The results of the study will be disseminated via conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.

    Keywords: Vaccination, Digital Public Health, Hospital-territory integration, Fragility, Primary Prevention

    Received: 02 Sep 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Lontano, Regazzi, Tona, Di Pumpo, Porcelli, Cacciuttolo, Parente, Gasbarrini, Grandaliano, Panocchia, Lopetuso, Pasciuto, Cadeddu, Bruno, Laurenti, Pascucci and Pastorino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Domenico Pascucci, Section of Hygiene, University Department of Health Sciences and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

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