Vaccine Selection Web-Based Tool by Austral Engineering and Software, Inc. Provides Best-Value Information for Pediatric Combination VaccinesATHENS, Ohio, Feb. 7, 2003 -- Austral Engineering and Software, Inc. (AES) has announced a new development release of its vaccine selection algorithm, available at http://www.vaccineselection.com , which can be utilized by the pediatric immunization community to design economical pediatric vaccine formularies while handling the increasing complexity posed by the number of available vaccine products and the recommended immunization schedule. "With the recent FDA approval of a pentavalent combination vaccine for pediatric immunization, healthcare providers can benefit from a web-based tool to help them make best-value purchasing decisions that would otherwise be quite difficult to reach," says Daniel A. Allwine, president of AES. The web-based tool, whose development is supported by Contract No. 200- 2002-00789 from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), uses principles from operations research to assemble an economical set of vaccines, and can take into account vaccine purchase prices, preparation costs, injection administration costs, and other individual and societal costs and benefits. Immunization providers need not stock all types and brands of monovalent and combination vaccines in order to fully vaccinate typical children in their care according to the National Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule. As a means of coping with the choices to be made, once termed 'combination chaos', the vaccine selection algorithm offers an objective and flexible method for picking products according to economic variables selected by the purchasers themselves, such as the value of avoiding additional injections. Sheldon H, Jacobson, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Edward C. Sewell, Professor of Mathematics at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, have worked with the CDC in developing operations research models to design economical pediatric vaccine formularies. "The combinatorial explosion of choices that now face pediatric health care providers, state health departments, HMOs, and health insurance companies has made it increasingly more difficult for such organizations to make sound economical decisions," Jacobson said. "The vaccine selection algorithm enables such people to assess the cost and benefit of particular pediatric immunization formularies, as well as how new products, including new combination vaccines, can impact their bottom line," added Jacobson. For additional information, please call AES at (740) 593-5912, or visit http://www.vaccineselection.com . Austral Engineering and Software, Inc. specializes in application of advanced modeling, design, controls, optimization, and software methods to the solution of engineering problems.
SOURCE Austral Engineering and Software, Inc.
Web Site: http://www.aes.ws http://www.vaccineselection.com
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