National Biosurveillance Strategy for Human Health

Citation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Biosurveillance Strategy for Human Health (Ver. 1.0) (Dec. 2008); (Ver. 2) (Feb. 2010) (full-text).

Overview
In December 2008, CDC’s Biosurveillance Coordination unit released the initial version of the "National Biosurveillance Strategy for Human Health," which defined goals to support integrated biosurveillance information as a priority. The strategy stated that health information exchange, enabled by the NHIN, was a foundation for a nationwide exchange of biosurveillance data. It also emphasized the need for data and interoperability standards to enable systems to share information across jurisdictions, disciplines, and domains related to human health, such as veterinary, environmental, food, and agricultural.

Version 2.0 of the strategy, which was released in February 2010, defines an activity that is intended to identify and compile a registry of existing biosurveillance systems in use by federal, state, and local public health entities. While this strategy addresses the need for improved electronic exchange of biosurveillance data to enhance public health emergency preparedness and response capabilities of federal, state, and local public health entities, it does not address another key component of situational awareness &mhdash; i.e., the knowledge of resources available for emergency response operations.