The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) has launched a ‘one stop shop’ website for vaccination information: the Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre (MVEC).
MVEC provides a suite of up-to-date immunisation resources for parents, healthcare professionals and researchers, including an A-Z immunisation guide and a Victorian Immunisation Schedule.
“The overall knowledge—and acceptance—of immunisation in Australia is quite high,” says Dr Nigel Crawford (RCH Medical Head of Immunisation Services). “But people are becoming more inquisitive. They’re more likely to want to investigate issues around vaccination and have health professionals answer those questions clearly and transparently.”
That trend prompted Nigel to embark on a three-month research trip last year, visiting his counterparts in several cities known for presenting vaccination information clearly and thoroughly.
After stops in Philadelphia, Seattle, Vancouver, London, Wales and Auckland, Nigel returned home ready to create an authoritative vaccine site for Melbourne (“I incorporated local information and resources, and put a local flavour into it,” he says).
Among the more valuable lessons of Nigel’s journey were the pitfalls to avoid.
“A common problem with vaccination information is that people often need to visit several websites to answer any given question, rather than one central portal,” Nigel says.
“We’ve made sure MVEC provides all the relevant information a parent might need on something like measles, for example, in one place.”
The MVEC team was also cautious to avoid the lengthy and intimidating articles featured on many vaccination websites.
“Most people don’t have the time—or desire—to read that much,” Nigel says.
“We’re presenting them with trustworthy information in a concise way, and then pointing them toward further resources if they want to learn more.”
MVEC will be updated regularly with immunisation news and events, and will respond in real-time to disease activity in the community.
MVEC is a collaboration between The Royal Children’s Hospital and its Melbourne Children’s campus partners The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and The University of Melbourne.