WHO WE ARE
SEKI (Strengthening Education and Knowledge on Immunization) was created from the belief that information is power. This initiative is designed for physicians, medical students, and other healthcare professionals who require accessible educational materials to stay on top of all vaccine-related developments. To facilitate this ongoing learning and continuing medical education, SEKI offers a repository of short video content, podcasts, and other teaching formats.
CONTEXT
Research by the Vaccine Safety Initiative (VIVI) in partnership with professional associations revealed that practicing pediatricians spend, on average, one hour per eight-hour workday on vaccine safety consultations. Less than half of these doctors had received formal training in this area. Most felt that they did observe adverse events following immunization (AEFI) during clinical practice, but less than 20% were aware of the accurate way to report such a dverse events to regulatory agencies.
Without physician know-how, safety signals get misreported or misdirected.
A joint project with the HPI Academy/ School fo Design Thinking in Potsdam, Germany, revealed that young parents, physicians, and medical students often avoid the “v-topic” altogether out of fear of a contentious vaccine debate.
Furthermore, the unfortunate timing of the first vaccine conversation after the birth of a child may impair adequate risk communication due to information overload, parental sleep deprivation, and exhaustion. Therefore, closer collaboration with prenatal care providers (obstetricians and midwives) will be crucial.
When citizens and parents actually do ask questions about vacciation: do healcthare professionals take the time to listen? All too often, doctors and nurses tend to consider patients and their caregivers as passive vaccine recipients rather than active partners in health with “stakes in the game.”
Lastly, vaccine consultations are poorly reimbursed, and the time and training available to physicians to listen to their patients are often insufficient.
CONCEPT
Busy parents, medical students, and physicians require accessible educational materials about vaccination. SEKI features short video content, podcasts, and other teaching formats that facilitate vaccine training and continuing medical education on the go. For those who practice regularly and successfully, we will provide a point system with incentives to help vaccine-hesitant healthcare workers to prioritize vaccine-related educational content.
GOALS
To develop a shared European platform for vaccine-related education and training activities for healthcare workers and medical students.
To create a shared infrastructure (website and app) and social media incentives encouraging healthcare workers and medical students to improve their knowledge on immunization, vaccine communication, immunization safety, and vaccine-preventable diseases.
To build the foundation for a European accreditation and evaluation system for continuing medical education and medical student education related to vaccines and immunization.
