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The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) has been chosen as one of seven specialty society partners for a cooperative agreement awarded to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to improve vaccination among high-risk adults.
This five-year award between CMSS and CDC includes $22 million in funding in the first year (with an estimated $55.5 million over five years) to support increased COVID-19, influenza, and routine vaccinations in high-risk adults with chronic medical conditions, including patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and chronic kidney disease, as well as older adults and staff in occupational health settings. The CDC specifically asked CMSS to target adults in occupational health settings and the Council recognized that ACOEM members’ long-standing relationships with health systems and clinics would be an asset to this vaccination improvement initiative.
Specialty societies that care for patients with chronic illness can provide more targeted continuing education and clinical guidance to ensure that specialty physicians play a greater role in immunization of these high-risk patients. As part of this agreement, ACOEM will partner with health care systems to incorporate CDC Standards for Adult Immunization Practice into clinical care and increase adult immunization through education, dissemination, and quality improvement initiatives. ACOEM could receive up to $3MM in the first year with up to $2MM in sub-awards available to these health care systems.
Over the past year, ACOEM has developed targeted messaging for flu and COVID-19 vaccination to assist its members in promoting these vaccines in their workplaces and to their employees. “ACOEM’s collaboration with CMSS will allow us to take our vaccination initiatives a step further; this is a tremendous opportunity for ACOEM and the specialty of occupational medicine,” said ACOEM President Robert M. Bourgeois, MD, MPH, FACOEM. “We are grateful to the CDC and CMSS for recognizing the impact of occupational medicine and providing us with the opportunity to expand our role in population health as a key player in helping employees protect themselves not only from COVID-19 but other preventable illnesses.”
Read press release from CMSS.
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About ACOEM
Founded in 1916, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) is the nation's largest medical society dedicated to championing the health of workers, safety of workplaces, and quality of environments. The College represents 4,000 physicians and other health care professionals specializing in the field of occupational and environmental medicine (OEM).