Assessing pediatrician attitudes on rotavirus vaccine

The January issue of Pediatrics has a number of items discussing RotaTeq, Merck's rotavirus vaccine. Most interesting to this group is a paper titled "Will pediatricians adopt the new rotavirus vaccine?," a survey of attitudes among 431 physicians (free abstract, subscription required for full text). Much of the data was presented at the February 2006 ACIP meeting at which RotaTeq received a universal recommendation.

Here's a portion of the results section:

"Of the respondents, 52% strongly agreed and 37% somewhat agreed with the need for a rotavirus vaccine. If recommended for routine use, 50% would strongly recommend and 34% would recommend but not strongly; 52% would begin to use within 6 months and 27% from 6 months to 1 year. The top 3 "definite" barriers to implementation included concerns about uniform coverage of vaccine by insurers, lack of adequate reimbursement, and parental reluctance because of withdrawal of previous rotavirus vaccine."