Project I-MOVE

Background

The international I-MOVE network has been measuring the effectiveness of influenza vaccines during the influenza season since 2007. It makes its data available to the health authorities as soon as possible after the start of the seasonal epidemic or pandemic.

Aim

Obtaining information over effectiveness of influenza vaccines during the influenza season is crucial to provide an appropriate response to influenza. With the information, in particular to:

• decide on recommendations to be communicated for vaccine use
• targeting additional or alternative measures (eg antivirals) on population subgroups where the vaccine is less effective
• accurately estimate the impact of current vaccination strategies on the disease to support vaccination campaigns
• further investigate seasonal and pandemic vaccines (to improve composition, decide on adjuvant use or need for booster doses)
• anticipate when the vaccine will be out of stock (especially during a pandemic

All this results to better patient care and to protect public health.

Method

In the Netherlands, data are collected in the context of national flu surveillance by general practitioners who participate in Nivel Primary Care Registrations First Line in collaboration with RIVM.

Expected results

By sharing and pooling European results according to an established protocol, questions will be answered that otherwise cannot be efficiently answered by individual countries. I-MOVE will quickly and widely share the study results with national and international partners and with science. On doing so the network makes a contribution to patient care and to the prevention and control of influenza.

Project partners

The network consists of 29 partners including ECDC, WHO-EURO, regional and national public health institutes, hospitals, small and medium enterprises, and universities from 15 European Union/European Economic Area Member States. Nivel is ons of the project partners. The project is coordinated by Epicconcept (Paris).

Nivel project team

Participating Nivel researchers are:

• Joke Korevaar PhD, coordinator Nivel research program General Practice Care
• Mariëtte Hooiveld PhD, senior researcher Nivel

Funding

The I-MOVE network was initiated with funding from Member States and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and has been coordinated by Epiconcept ever since.

From 2015 to 2018, the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme contributed to the funding of the network: I-MOVE+. It allowed to set up a hospital network to measure vaccine effectiveness at hospital level. The World Health Organization Regional office for Europe contributes to the financing of a study site in Romania. 

For the 2018/2019 season, Epiconcept is funding the activities of the I-Move hospital network.

Want to know more?

Take a look at the international project website I-MOVE.eu. And please feel free to get in touch with the Nivel expert(s) involved. You will find them on the right, together with the (future) Nivel deliverables (publications) and other relevant content.