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Div. of Media Relations
1600 Clifton Road
MS D-14
Atlanta, GA 30333
(404) 639-3286
Fax (404) 639-7394 |
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Press Release
For Immediate Release
September 8, 2004 |
Contact: CDC Media Relations
404-639-3286 |
CDC Invests $73 Million to Improve Health
Information Services for the Public
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today the
award of a seven-year, $73 million contract to provide a single point of
contact for consumers and health professionals to access comprehensive,
timely, and credible health information.
“Communicating directly with the American public has become a vital part
of CDC’s role in protecting the nation’s health and safety,” said CDC
Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. “With this unified approach, we will get the
right health information to the right people at the right time.”
The new service will integrate more than 40 hotlines, clearinghouses,
automated voice and facsimile response systems into one comprehensive
contact service center available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The
contact center will cover telephone, facsimile, e-mail, postal mail, and
web-based contacts and responses and include multilingual and
hearing-impaired services.
“Pearson Government Solutions has been contracted by CDC to use the
industry’s leading approaches and technologies to provide the best consumer
experience possible,” said CDC Chief Operating Officer Bill Gimson.
“Through this action, we increase the level of service and breadth of
health information available to the consumer at one phone number.”
Pearson provides consumer information services for more than 32 federal
programs, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the
U.S. Department of Education.
CDC currently responds to more than 3 million public inquiries a year on
such topics as international travel, childhood immunizations, obesity,
heart disease and stroke, adolescent health, terrorism preparedness,
disease outbreaks, injuries, birth defects, HIV/AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases, and environmental threats.
“We are very excited about this new opportunity to improve CDC’s service
to the public and health professionals,” said Jim Seligman, CDC Chief
Information Officer. “Accurate health information is vitally important for
people to make good health choices. While CDC’s website has grown
dramatically to over 10 million visitors a month, many consumers need other
means to get health information or want an integrated approach between
direct person-to-person and electronic interactions.”
The new toll-free consolidated consumer response service will be phased
in during the next few months. Callers can continue to use existing CDC
hotline numbers. As the new contract is implemented, calls from existing
hotlines will automatically be transferred to the new number.
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