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About us
Mission Statement
The Brighton Collaboration is an international voluntary collaboration to facilitate the development, evaluation, and dissemination of high quality information about the safety of human vaccines.
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Background
Any medical intervention should ideally be shown to be safe and effective. In the realm of immunization, the assessment of safety is particularly important due to the preventive nature of the intervention. Immunization safety concerns have become increasingly prominent with near elimination of many vaccine-preventable diseases in an increasing number of countries worldwide due to high immunization coverage. Fewer and fewer persons actually experience vaccine-preventable diseases, while the absolute number of reports of adverse events following immunization increases. We aim to ensure the ongoing trust in immunizations as one of the most successful and cost-effective global public health interventions by enabling scientifically rigorous understanding of immunization safety issues.
However, the assessment of immunization safety is complex. Safety cannot be measured directly; it can only be inferred indirectly by the relative absence of multiple measured adverse events following immunization (AEFI). A common understanding of each AEFI worldwide and in all settings builds a basis for meaningful research and communication in immunization safety. The development and use of standardized case definitions together with guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation will promote meaningful assessment and enable comparability of AEFI data across clinical trials and surveillance systems.
Currently, there is a general lack of standardized, widely disseminated, and globally accepted case definitions for many AEFI. Some research groups, the pharmaceutical industry, public health, regulatory and reporting agencies have developed limited sets of case definitions for AEFI. However, they are not widely used, variations between the definitions are often substantial, and guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation are lacking.
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The Brighton Collaboration
The Brighton Collaboration is committed to develop standardized, widely disseminated and globally accepted case definitions for an exhaustive number of AEFI as well as guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation.
The Brighton Collaboration was founded by Robert Chen, Harald Heijbel, Tom Jefferson, Ulrich Heininger, and Elisabeth Loupi in 1999 at a meeting in Brighton, England. It was officially launched in autumn 2000. The Collaboration consists of volunteers from patient care, public health, scientific, pharmaceutical, regulatory and professional organizations coming from developed and developing countries. They are experienced and knowledgeable in the field of immunization safety and corresponding medical specialties.
Volunteers will collaborate in this global network of individuals and organizations concerned with immunization safety. Volunteers can participate either as individuals in the Working Groups (WGs) or as Individuals or organizations in the Reference Group (RG). The resulting accrual of expertise focused on the development of standardized case definitions and guidelines, and the sharing of knowledge within and outside the Collaboration, will benefit vaccine recipients by providing high quality vaccine safety data. A standardized set of Case Definitions&Guidelines will also benefit investigators and health officials who conduct immunization studies, healthcare workers of diverse backgrounds, who make clinical decisions on immunizations and who need to obtain, interpret, provide and report information on immunization safety.
A transparent methodology, a continuous cyclical revision of our work with no financial interest in the outcome of our objectives, are integral parts of our mission.
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Objectives
A. Global Collaboration
To establish a global collaboration of professionals and organizations concerned with immunization safety.
B. Development
To develop a single standardized case definition per AEFI and guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation for global use.
C. Evaluation
To develop and implement study protocols for evaluation of case definitions and guidelines in clinical trials and surveillance systems.
D. Implementation
To raise global awareness of the availability, educate about the benefit of use, facilitate access to and monitor worldwide use of standardized case definitions and guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation.
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Principles of The Brighton Collaboration
- Altruism: To serve the needs of the global community concerned with immunization safety
- Collaboration: To work together effectively by promoting good internal and external communications through open decision making and teamwork
- Worldwide Participation: To promote global participation
- Independence: To keep the Brighton Collaboration scientifically independent
- Multidisciplinary Approach: To involve people of different skills and backgrounds, in order to benefit and build upon their contributions
- Generalizability: To minimize bias by adhering to a strict scientific approach, ensuring broad participation, and avoiding conflicts of interest
- Relevance: To maintain Brighton documents up-to-date by identifying and incorproating the highest achievable quality of clinical evidence
- Accessibility of Work: To facilitate access to Brighton documents through strategic alliances and choice of media
- Responsiveness: To provide quality information by being open and responsive to criticism
- Continuity: To maintain continuity of responsibility for Brighton documents and key functions
- Accessibility: To allow broad participation in the work of the Brighton Collaboration by minimizing obstacles to contributing and promoting diversity
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The work of the Brighton Collaboration is based on a large number of volunteers worldwide. It obtained its first funding in 1999. The Brighton Collaboration is presently supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the University Children's Hospital Basel (UKBB). From 2000 until 2003, the Collaboration also received funding through the European Research Program for Improved Vaccine Safety Surveillance (EUSAFEVAC).
In December 2003, the Brighton Collaboration Foundation was established by the University Children's Hospital Basel, Switzerland. The purpose of the Foundation is to protect and preserve public health by promoting immunization safety. The Foundation promotes the development and availability, of globally accepted, high quality scientific standards for research on and communication of immunization safety. The Foundation may also conduct immunization safety research itself or support such research projects.
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