Managing Change and Governance
CDC recognizes that we will need to keep moving and keep innovating if we’re going to be ready for whatever comes next.
With this priority, we’re making sure resources are used wisely, monitoring progress, and supporting strategic innovation for new ways of thinking and working.
Governance: We’re enhancing our ability to approve strategic and efficient IT and data investments at CDC, aiding adoption of unified technology, data, and data products.
Monitoring and Evaluation: We’re measuring progress on a growing suite of investments that touch nearly every part of the public health ecosystem.
Procurement: We’ve begun making acquisition processes more efficient and effective to allow CDC and its partners to get timely and flexible resources.
Change Management: We encourage a culture of innovation, collaboration, inclusion, and adaptability among CDC and its partners.
“The next phase of modernization will require technical agility, teamwork, and flexibility… Soon, everyone will be working in a new way and accessing new tools for the benefit of all public health.”
— Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, CDC Director
Public health is made up of many different people and systems that need to work together to collect, analyze, and share important data. Over time, much of the work public health does has become separated, or “siloed,” because programs are usually funded and set up to address only a single disease or condition. An important job for data modernization is to take the disconnected data streams and areas of expertise and bring them together — what we call “breaking down silos.” Making this a priority will help us work smarter and make public health more effective at getting the right data to the right people at the right time, and in the right ways.
At the core of everything we do as an agency is our institutional culture — from how we interact with partners, to how we implement programs, to how we publish our science. CDC launched the Moving Forward effort in April 2022 to position the agency to better support the future of public health. Moving Forward will not only change how CDC operates, but also its culture, orienting it toward timely action — ensuring CDC’s science reaches the public in an understandable, accessible, and actionable manner as quickly as possible.
CDC launched unified IT and Data Governance that has saved millions for the agency by reviewing all IT and data investments, preventing the creation of duplicate systems, and connecting programs to existing systems that meet their needs. Coordination across the agency to support DMI and IT modernization is also part of CDC’s IT Strategic Plan actions.
We’re changing how we work across CDC to ensure DMI is executed well. For example, DMI Implementation Leads are now in place within each every one of CDC’s centers, institutes, and offices. These individuals work across the agency to strategically align projects, coordinate implementation, and monitor and measure progress towards our future state. Additionally, in 2022, cross-agency collaborative teams worked together on specific DMI priorities and objectives.
We’re making strides on acquisition strategies to allow CDC and its partners to get the right data and IT products when they need them. For example, the Federal Acquisition Regulation is an important part of making acquisition processes more efficient and effective to allow CDC and its partners to get timely and flexible resources, while the TechFAR Hub brings best practices from industry to federal digital service acquisitions. Learn more about these and other policies informing public health data modernization.
Monitoring and evaluation are how we make sure we are delivering on the promise of data to protect America’s health. Since its inception, monitoring and evaluation has been built into DMI following CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation. Our monitoring and evaluation framework uses specific data about each DMI project to answer important questions at every step of the way. The next step is to develop a central analytics, information, access, and exchange portal, or Info Hub, for all DMI activities. See the DMI monitoring and evaluation fact sheet to learn more.
