STC Releases a Health Information System to Mitigate the Impact of Perinatal Hepatitis B

Scientific Technologies Corporation (STC), a leading population health informatics company which provides disease surveillance, case management, immunization registries, and vaccine management systems has released a knowledge-based software application to empower the hepatitis clinic care and public health community to support and manage Perinatal Hepatitis B patients.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hepatitis B is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and can become an acute or chronic infection. HBV is transmitted when body fluid of an infected individual enters the body of someone not infected such as from mother-to-child at birth. Sadly, the CDC estimates that approximately ninety percent of infected infants develop chronic illness. Chronic HBV can lead to serious health issues such as liver cancer, liver disease, or severe liver scaring (cirrhosis). In the U.S. there are between 700,000 to 1.4 million individuals chronically infected with HBV and over 19,700 new infections a year. Most importantly, HBV is vaccine preventable, requiring administration of the vaccine within twelve hours of birth. However, every year almost 1,000 babies are infected with hepatitis B perinatally.

STC’s Perinatal Hepatitis B application enables the clinical care community and public health to track and manage hepatitis B infected mothers and ensure their infants are given the necessary care to avoid HBV transmission. This tool which supports Immunization Intelligence includes resources for case management of infants and mothers and provides decision support for follow-up activity and immunization forecasting. Noteworthy is that this tool was designed through a five-state public health consortium of hepatitis case managers and immunization registry specialists to ensure universal application and utilization with the ability to interoperate with any immunization information or electronic health record system.

“We possess the tools we need to eliminate HBV in the U.S. and avoid thousands of premature deaths each year” said STC CEO Mike Popovich. He continued “STC values the opportunity to continue to lead and partner with providers and public health to develop critical health information applications like the new Perinatal Hepatitis B system. Information is the key to support the reduction of the number of mother-to-child transmissions each year.” “Our hope is that we can eliminate hepatitis B virus by using information to empower patients and providers. Elimination of hepatitis B is a challenging and achievable goal” concluded Mr. Popovich.

About STChealth

STChealth’s mission is to eradicate vaccine preventable disease and empower individuals through our innovative technology and service solutions. We deliver on our mission through passion and innovation, through teamwork and inclusion, through superior client service and products, and a relentless pursuit of the next ”big idea”​ that will advance immunization intelligence. Starting with developing the first Immunization Information System (IIS) and over 35 years of experience in the immunization ecosystem, STChealth is positioned today to support more than 1/3 of COVID-19 vaccinations reported in the U.S. through our network of over 70,000 Providers and Pharmacy Partners. More information can be found at www.STChealth.com