How to improve communication on vaccine issues at the national level? INFOVAC-PED: an example from Switzerland

For physicians in private practice, rapid access to relevant and up-to-date objective information is required to better meet their clients' concerns o n vaccine-related issues. To meet this need, INFOVAC-PED, an academic netwo rk of on call pediatric infectious diseases experts who can be reached free of charge at a central e-mail address, now answers Swiss physicians' quest ions within 24-48 h. INFOVAC-PED also distributes monthly bulletins includi ng news from the Federal Office of Public Health, vaccine producers, litera ture survey, and answers to most frequently asked questions. The rapid succ ess of this novel initiative underlines the need to better support front li ne physicians. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.