The VIMC coordinates the work of several research modelling the impact of vaccination programs worldwide. Coordinated by Imperial College London, the VIMC delivers sustainable, efficient, and transparent approach to generating disease burden and vaccine impact estimates. We contribute estimates of rotavirus vaccine impact for over 100 low and middle income countries to the VIMC. To do this, our dynamic model of rotavirus transmission simulates the impact of vaccination at different coverage levels on child deaths and illness.

The main benefit of a vaccine it to prevent disease from the vaccine's target pathogen. In this way, rotavirus vaccination prevents rotavirus infection thereby averting cases of severe diarrheal disease. After rotavirus vaccines are added to a country's routine immunization program, rotavirus diarrheal hospitalizations and death tend to dramatically decline.

But, vaccines can also have benefits against outcomes aside from its main target. For example, vaccines may also be able to reduce antibiotic resistance, or at least reduce over-prescribing of antibiotics. In this project, we are investigating if rotavirus vaccination can impact antibiotic prescribing and resistance. We are conducting a large cohort study constructed from IBM Watson MarketScan medical claims databases. We're using machine learning to see if vaccinating kids against rotavirus can also reduce the number of antibiotics that they are prescribed and their risk for antibiotic-resistant infections.