CAIRE members area

This RSA board meeting is a continuation of the last meeting, where public health professionals, researchers, vaccine manufacturers, and policy makers discussed challenges and approaches to move forward on risk stratification of immunocompromising conditions, evidence generation, and equitable access to vaccines. See the full summary for more.

This meeting brought together clinicians, researchers, policymakers, patient advocates, and industry representatives to address barriers to vaccination for immunocompromised (IC) individuals. The meeting’s objectives included defining “immunocompromised,” identifying systemic barriers to vaccine access, and proposing strategies to optimize immunization schedules.

This meeting explored current opportunities and challenges with vaccinations in older adults, from designing clinical trials to implementation of routine immunization schedules. Discussions included potential adult immunization schedule frameworks and innovative research strategies, including frailty-inclusive approaches, clinical trial endpoints for older populations, and cost-effectiveness analysis to ensure effective and equitable vaccination programs for aging populations.

This meeting presented opportunities for discussion on which factors make Canada an attractive place to undertake vaccine research, and what are the barriers that make Canada less competitive. Through having perspectives from different stakeholders, this meeting was able to explore how the Canadian landscape fares with other key countries/regions as well as to strategize potential solutions to minimize barriers.