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Brief description

Immunisation is essential to any public health system and generates significant benefits at individual, governmental, and economic levels. The Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR) is used to help control the spread of infectious diseases by:

  • keeping a record of the vaccinations New Zealanders have received or chosen not to receive
  • providing information about immunisation coverage across the population

Over their lifetime, New Zealanders can receive vaccinations from a range of health providers. Previously, health providers could not always get a full picture of a person’s vaccination history to help them, and the consumer make the best health decisions.

AIR serves as a single point of truth for understanding overall immunisation coverage from a population health perspective or for planning targeted interventions. The AIR enables immunisation healthcare providers to access immunisation health records and make better decisions about whether a person should or should not receive a vaccination.

For more information on AIR, please visit the Health New Zealand website here.

Accessible data

The following details are recorded in the AIR:

  • Your health number (National Health Index or NHI), date of birth (DOB) and gender,
  • Details about the vaccination you receive such as vaccine type, batch number, date of administration, vaccinator, and facility,
  • Whether you decline a vaccination, and
  • Your contact person's name and contact details (if applicable).
  • Other personal information associated with your NHI (such of name, address, healthcare provider, and ethnicity) is not stored in the AIR but can be accessed by authorised users of the AIR through the National Health Index and National Enrolment Service Systems. By using these systems, healthcare providers can link your name to your information in the AIR

Who can use this API

The API is intended for integration with:

  • health software developers
  • developers of practice management systems, consumer-facing patient portals or third-party integrators
  • healthcare providers
  • government and private/non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
  • others who supply services or support the healthcare market.

Use cases

The information collected as part of the AIR processes may be used for: 

  • managing the health of health consumers
  • keeping health consumers safe 
  • planning and funding health services 
  • carrying out authorised research 
  • training health care professionals 
  • preparing and publishing statistics 
  • improving publicly funded health services 
  • enabling broader health and social support services. 

Information may be used for statistical analysis and research purposes, in line with usual Health NZ processes and when permitted by the Privacy Act 2020 and Health Information.

The following are a few scenarios for which the API might be used:

  • Immunisation administration (at practices, clinics and so on.)
  • Consumers portals and apps - View self and dependent immunisation history
  • Workforce onboarding – visibility and sharing of immunisation history
  • Hospitals – visibility of immunisation for in-patient care
  • Outreach for opportunistic vaccinations

Onboarding and implementation

To begin the onboarding process for this API, please visit the Consumer onboarding page.

For more information on integrating, please review the Implementation guide.

Business functions and risk scores

To view what these risk scores mean, click here.

Name

Function

Description

Clinical Risk Score

Privacy Risk Score

Search Immunisation Event

The Search immunisation request retrieves the consumer’s vaccination history using the consumer's National Health Index (NHI) number, date range, and health practitioner facility ID

A list of immunisation events will be returned along with the patient’s demographic and enrolment data.

 

In addition to the NHI, a particular disease can be specified in the search request to narrow the list to immunisation pertinent to that disease.

 

The search request will not return results if the patient has opted to restrict access to their immunisation records.

MEDIUM

EXTREME

Level 3 identity verification

Read Immunisation Event

Retrieves the details of an immunisation event using a known immunisation event ID

The latest version of the immunisation event is returned, which includes the following information:

  • health consumer NHI number, name, and demographics, the
  • the observation and vaccine codes,
  • the status and date of the vaccination,
  • the contact person who attended the immunisation event,
  • the facility where the immunisation was administered and,
  • details of the vaccinator who administered it.

The read request will return an empty resource if the patient has opted to restrict access to their immunisation records.

MEDIUM

EXTREME

Level 3 identity verification

Create Immunisation Event

Create a new immunisation event for a specific health consumer’s NHI

The request includes:

  • details of the patient who received the immunisation,
  • the contact person who attended the immunisation event,
  • the facility where the immunisation was administered,
  • the provider who administered it,
  • the vaccine product administered, vaccine batch number & expiry,
  • the route of administration & body site,
  • the date & time administered and,
  • the diluent batch number & expiry if relevant,

Normally, an immunisation event is created once the patient has been uniquely identified and no prior record exists of the event. API validation checks identify whether the event is valid and/or duplicate. The API also matches the created request to the patient’s planned events, such as those defined by the NZ National Immunisation Schedule.

 

The consuming application is responsible for supplying the correct Patient NHI number, facility, and other codes. AIR will save a record provided the consuming application is authorised, the request is valid, passes FHIR validation, and the code/ID format and checksums are correct. Exact duplicates received in less than 60 minutes are recorded as a quality error and marked with the status ‘entered-in-error’.

 

MEDIUM

EXTREME

Level 3 identity verification

Update Immunisation Event

Update an existing immunisation event using a known immunisation event ID

This method checks if the immunisation event with the given ID exists, and if it does, it updates the event with the new details provided. The method also performs validation checks to ensure that the updated event is valid before it is saved as the current event.

MEDIUM

EXTREME

Level 3 identity verification

API types

REST API

All REST API endpoints adhere to Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resources (FHIR) interoperability standards.

Service levels

  • Target 99.99 percent service availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • For support when using the AIR, please use the link here to access the AIR service desk portal or call the team on 0800 855 066 (press 2 and then 1). These channels are currently monitored:   
    • 8am - 5pm, Monday to Friday (from 9.30am on Wednesdays)  
    • 9am - 2pm, Saturday

Additional Requirements

The AIR APIs utilise external APIs to implement the _include operation. This operation enriches the payload to resolve external references for example - including Patient Demographics information in the Immunisation History. It's recommended that clients use the _include service as it will ensure you get the most up-to-date reference information.

The include service supports the following reference resolution.

If you require any of these, you must request access to and pass compliance for the corresponding services:

Include Service

Accompanying Service

Immunization.patient

Get Patient

Immunization.performer.actor

Get Practitioner

Immunization.location

Get Facility

Immunization.location.managingOrganisation

Get Organisation


The AIR APIs return identifier's only for external references e.g. NHI, Facility code etc. The AIR API's utilise external APIs (as called  out above), on behalf on the client, to implement the _include operation.