BioSense Redesign Invites Stakeholders to Make Sense of Surveillance

Another important announcement from our colleagues at CDC:

Using input and guidance from our local, state, and federal surveillance partners, CDC is pleased to annouce that the BioSense Redesign is underway! The goal of the redesign is to coordinate and link exisiting surveillance systems and build capacity where it’s needed.  This renewed focus will ensure rapid and enhanced interchange of surveillance information.

Bottom line, we want BioSense to meet your needs.  By integrating local- and state-level data into a cohesive picture, BioSense will accomplish three objectives—(1) provide more useful information for state and local users; (2) supply multipurpose value of timely data for regional entities and organizations (i.e., multistate); and (3) offer a national picture of multiple health outcomes and syndromes. 

We’ll be the first to admit that our redesign efforts are a major undertaking; however, we truly view the redesign as a collaborative effort that places you, the stakeholder, at the center of the redesign process.   Currently, we are gaining invaluable feedback and recommendations from stakeholders like you, through a number of methods, including the BioSense Redesign Collaboration Web Site—the focal point of the redesign. 

If you have not already done so, please take a moment to visit this site.  There you will find a number of interactive elements, like the Requirements Gathering Work Center and the Syndromic Surveillance Systems Coverage Map.  The Work Center is a virtual space where we gather stakeholder feedback on topics ranging from capacity and governance to application design.  New questions are posted for user input on a weekly to biweekly basis.  Additionally, the Coverage Map, which has been populated with data from the Distribute project, provides a snapshot of the nation’s syndromic surveillance systems.  Like the BioSense Redesign, maintenance of the Coverage Map is a collaborative effort that can only be successful with stakeholder input. 

Your feedback is invaluable and it will directly impact the redesign of the BioSense program.  We hope that you will become a regular visitor and contributor to the Requirements Gathering Work Center. If you are the appropriate person to edit your jurisdiction’s data on the Coverage Map, please send an e-mail and your name will be added to our list of approved site editors.

Visit the BioSense Redesign Collaboration Web Site and view the Coverage Map or view the Requirements Gathering Work Center.

Let’s make sense of surveillance together!