Use of near-real-time medical claims data to generate timely vaccine coverage estimates in the US: The dynamics of PCV13 vaccine uptake

By using a simple analytic approach to compute vaccine coverage in aging cohorts from claims data, we show that PCV13 coverage rose rapidly as the PCV7 program was replaced. These estimates, validated against a CDC sentinel surveillance system in 8 states, should enable early documentation of the PCV13 impact on pneumococcal disease in the US. Moreover, they demonstrate the feasibility of tracking uptake patterns in near real-time even with simple summary counts of medical claims data.