Putting Adult Vaccine Recommendations Into Action

Vaccinations, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), are an essential component of comprehensive adult health care. Yet, adult vaccination rates in the United States are suboptimal, leaving individuals, and in many cases also others in their communities, at risk for preventable illness. As a greater array of adult vaccines become available and dosing schedules and indications evolve, many factors contribute to suboptimal vaccination rates, including failure to think of vaccines as a regular component of adult care, physicians' and other clinicians' confusion about the recommendations, and vaccine hesitancy among patients.

On 7 February 2024, Annals of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians (ACP) assembled experts to provide practical information to better prepare physicians to implement the adult vaccination recommendations. Janet Jokela, MD, MPH, moderated a panel that included Sybil Cineas, MD; Robert Hopkins Jr., MD; and Susan Lee, MD. Dr. Jokela, an infectious disease subspecialist, is Treasurer and a member of the ACP Board of Regents and Senior Associate Dean of Engagement at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Cineas, an ACIP member, is Associate Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Medical Science at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Hopkins is a Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, serves as Chair of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as Vice Chair of the ACP Immunization Committee. Dr. Lee is an ACP Governor and Professor of Clinical Medicine at Renaissance School of Medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she is the Medical Director of Stony Brook Primary Care.