Unified Nomenclature of Vaccines (NUVA)

A global standard for the interoperability of vaccination data

OVERVIEW

The Unified Vaccine Nomenclature (NUVA) is an international, multilingual, structured terminology covering all vaccines—commercial, historical, generic, or country-specific.

It enables reliable interpretation of vaccination histories, facilitates vaccine equivalence management, and ensures semantic interoperability across health information systems. NUVA is also available as a community extension to SNOMED CT.

At the heart of NUVA is the valence model, providing a standardised, brand-agnostic representation of immune protection (the smallest functional immunological unit of a vaccine tied to a specific agent or subgroup—e.g., serotype or strain).

NUVA diagram

PURPOSE AND VALUE

  • Deliver a universal vaccine terminology across time and regions
  • Enable unambiguous decoding of vaccine labels (paper or digital)
  • Ensure semantic alignment between national and international systems
  • Support clinical decision-making, surveillance, and traceability
  • Serve as a reference standard for governments, providers, researchers, and industry

CORE COMPONENTS OF NUVA

CATALOGUE

  • Commercial and generic vaccine names
  • Multilingual entries covering active, inactive, country-specific, or historical vaccines

STRUCTURING

  • Decomposition of vaccines into valences
  • Linkage to diseases, valences, and national/international codifications
  • Extended NUVA by MA dates, commercialisations, and laboratories

PIVOT TERMINOLOGY

  • Intermediary layer for mapping across national coding systems (CIS/CIP, CVX…) and international ones (ATC, SNOMED CT…)
  • Seamless integration into EHRs, Digital Vaccination Records (DVRs), immunisation registries, and VADES engines

THE CONCEPT OF VALENCE IN NUVA

A valence is the immunological core unit of a vaccine, sufficient to assess protection against a pathogen or subspecies, determine the need for a future dose, identify equivalent/substitutable vaccines, and calculate dose rank when combination vaccines are used.

USE CASES

  • Harmonisation of vaccination records across borders or systems
  • Interoperability with Immunisation Information Systems (IIS)
  • Automatic enrichment of Digital Vaccination Records (DVRs)
  • Valence-driven interpretation in Vaccine Decision Support Systems (VADES)
  • Dashboards, coverage calculations, and logistical auditing
  • Search of vaccines by valency or target disease

GOVERNANCE AND EVOLUTION

  • Managed by the International Vaccine Codes Initiative (IVCI)
  • Regular updates validated by scientific and technical committees
  • Open contribution framework for national authorities, expert societies, and industry partners