What are our priorities?

The Why, What, and How of Data Modernization

Our shared vision for the future is to develop and deploy world-class data and analytics to meet today’s and tomorrow’s health challenges across the public health community.

“In public health, we can’t do anything without surveillance. That’s where public health begins.”

David Satcher, MD, PhD, CDC Director 1993–1998

  • Grounded in this ambitious vision, DMI brings the best of what has been learned from our experience with COVID-19, opoids, flu, Zika, EVALI, and other emergencies and applies it to our everyday public health data systems on a much larger scale.

Our work centers on five key priorities that are interconnected and equally important to reaching the future state:

  1. Building the Right Foundation: Improving data collection, analysis, and sharing at CDC and across a set of core public health surveillance systems that are used for all diseases and conditions
  2. Accelerating Data for Action: Tapping into more data sources, promoting health equity, and increasing capacities for scalable outbreak response, forecasting, and predictive analytics
  3. Developing a State-of-the-Art Workforce: Using next-generation skills for actionable public health insights
  4. Supporting and Extending Partnerships: Ensuring transparency, addressing policy challenges, and solving problems together
  5. Managing Change and Governance: Making sure resources are used wisely, monitoring progress, and supporting strategic innovation for new ways of thinking and working

We are focused on ensuring that all the investments CDC makes today are sustainable and lay the foundation for tomorrow.

  • Right now, we’re investing funds from the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan both at CDC and in jurisdictions.
  • And our goal is to create scalable, flexible systems that will last beyond the current crisis and work for any disease or condition.

RESOURCES