CDC Discusses Vision for Public Health Surveillance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new MMWR Supplement today, Friday, July 27, 2012, entitled "CDC's Vision for Public Health Surveillance in the 21st Century". This supplement includes several reports that were developed as by-products of the 2009 CDC/ATSDR meeting convened to assess public health surveillance in the U.S. and around the world. These deliberations drew together around 100 CDC/ATSDR scientists and managers to discuss the state of public health surveillance practice and to recommend a strategy to advance the future of public health surveillance. 


As a part of the process to assess public heath surveillance, the CDC/ATSDR leadership conducted a survey that revealed the following top six issues that must be addressed by the public health community to advance public health surveillance in the 21st century: 

• Lexicon, definitions, and conceptual framework for public health surveillance;
• Global health surveillance;
• Roles of information sciences and technological advances in public health surveillance;
• Public health surveillance work force of the future;
• Accessing and using data for public health surveillance: legal, policy, ethical, regulatory, and practical concerns related to data sharing; and
• Analytical challenges for emerging public health surveillance.

These areas of concern were discussed at the 2009 meeting by six workgroups charged with the task of describing and identifying ways to address the challenges and opportunities of each of the topic areas. The outcomes of these deliberations are captured in the reports contained in the current MMWR supplement. 

To review these reports and learn more about the CDC's Vision for Public Health Surveillance in the 21st Century, view the July 27, 2012 MMWR Supplement page or download the pdf document of the current issue.